


Cuddlebuddies.com

by 3cheers4sweet_romance



Category: Bandom, My Chemical Romance
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Always-a-girl!Gerard, Cuddling & Snuggling, Eventual Relationships, F/M, Female Gerard Way, Fluff, Lonely Frank, Misunderstandings, Pining, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-16
Updated: 2015-04-16
Packaged: 2018-03-13 05:30:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3369605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/3cheers4sweet_romance/pseuds/3cheers4sweet_romance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>“We at mycuddlebuddy.com strive to provide you with the best professional cuddling experiences”.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>In this fic Frank hires a professional cuddler named Gee to snuggle with him and guess what? Yes, they fall in love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An intriguing website

**Author's Note:**

> So, I found this website where you can actually hire someone to snuggle with you and I really felt the need to write a genderswap Frerard out of it.  
> This is the result.
> 
> Also, Frank is the older one in this AU.

_“We at mycuddlebuddy.com strive to provide you with the best professional cuddling experiences”._

Frank stares at the screen; eyebrows knitted. He's puzzled by this ridiculous website and the ridiculous service it offers. The home page has nothing extraordinary or appealing on it; it's just a plain page with a few unremarkable pictures decorating it. What makes it interesting is what they claim in the pieces of information that they posted.

As Frank reads, his eyes go from wide to narrow alternately. He mouths the excerpts that he finds the most intriguing: “ _Professional cuddling service_ ” “ _Platonic, therapeutic touch_ ,” “ _A personalized snuggling experience with a professionally trained cuddler_ ”. He takes a minute to process this information and put the pieces together.

“So, what they are trying to tell me is that you can actually hire a person to cuddle with you?” Frank's frown deepens. “Is this a new form of prostitution or something?” He eyes at the page suspiciously. “This has to be some kind of prostitution, right?” 

Frank sits back in his chair, crosses his arms over his lap and cups his jaw with his left hand, thoughtfully, not taking his gaze away from the screen of his computer for a long while.

“Hiring someone to cuddle with you..." he muses. "That's such a weird concept”, it's also a clever idea for making money, now that he thinks about it, but still... weird. He leans forward and grabs the mouse that is placed on the right side of his desk and closes that tab.

“Okay Frank, focus,” he scolds himself and goes back to his email account where there is a long list of massages from his boss, colleagues and clients waiting for a response. He also has to finish the bussines plan proposal for that sportswear company, so he can't be wasting his time while aimlessly _surfing the net_ or whatever. He opens the top message in the inbox and starts reading.

 

****************************************

 

The next day, Frank's at the office as usual. He just came back from lunch and he wants to check the numbers from the baseball little leagues again, so he turns his computer on and goes to grab a cup of coffee while it starts running. Once that he's back in his cubicle, he places the steamy cup on the left side of the keyboard and sits down at his desk. He scrolls down the history of websites that he's visited on the last twenty four hours looking for the one about baseball, but first, he spots the address of that other website that he accidentally found yesterday: //mycuddlebuddy.com.

Frank looks at it and considers it for a moment. He doesn't have anything urgent to do right now; he sent his boss the final version of the business plan about two hours ago and he's been waiting for feedback, but he usually doesn't get quick responses from his boss, so he has some time to kill now. He thought of checking those numbers again in the meantime and be proficient, but he works hard every day, so he's allowed to just sit there and do nothing with his computer during work hours every once in a while, right?

He clicks on the link mainly because he's curious and wants to know what this cuddling service is about. There's something really intriguing about this website and Frank thinks that it is related to the fact that it looks completely harmless. The home page has pictures of smiley, happy, heterosexual couples, and... Oh, there's a lesbian couple too. Some of them are hugging and others are snuggling in bed. All of them are fully dressed. At least when they post pictures of busty women showing up their asses you know that that's upfront sex business, but this doesn't seem to be that, even though, Frank can't stop thinking that there has to be something sordid behind this whole _hire-a-person-to-snuggle-with-you_ thing.

After skimming at the pieces of information that he read yesterday, Frank scrolls down the page and finds the link to a client contract. He opens it and sees that it's a list of a dozen clauses that the clients have to read and agree with before receiving the service of a professional cuddler.

“Professional cuddler?” Frank squints when he reads that term again. “It's that an actual career?” He wonders if you have to go to some school, take courses on cuddling and get a diploma or something to become that, but he forgets about it quickly as he continues reading.

“So, no sex allowed, no touching on inappropriate places, no sex insinuations, no breaking any laws, and you have to keep your clothes on the whole time,” Frank summarizes some of the clauses. “If any of that happens, the cuddlers have the right to leave and they're allowed to carry a non-lethal weapon to defend themselves”.

Frank wonders what kind of non-lethal weapons are they carrying. “Maybe pepper spray or a stun gun". Frank cringes when he thinks about how bad an electrical shock has to hurt when directed to your nuts. He shakes himself, takes a sip of his coffee and continues reading.

“So nothing sexual, huh?” He mutters once he's done and lets himself sink back in his chair, feeling more comfortable now that the prostitution thing is out of the question. He's still intrigued by this kind of service though, so he goes back to the home page and clicks on a link that takes him to the a list of benefits. In this page they describe the multiple benefits of what they call a _touch therapy_.

“So, it helps with stress, depression, anxiety; improves your self-esteem, social skills and immune system; protects you against oxidative stress...” Frank thinks that he might have some of that; he thinks that most types of stress might be affecting him, actually. That's an awful side effect of being successful in this business. Anyway, back to the list of benefits, Frank reads that a touch therapy also makes you release oxytocin, dopamine and serotonin, and that it relieves pain.

“That's quite an impressive list,” he thinks, but then his eyes go narrow as he realizes that they are trying to sell this service by convincing you that it is really good for your health, just like if they were selling a bottle of vitamins. He goes back to the home page and skims down some testimonials of guys saying how happy they are with the cuddling service and how it changed their lives; Frank skims them, feeling unimpressed. When he scrolls back up to the header, he finds the links to the list of cuddlers that are currently offering their services. There are two options, female cuddlers and male cuddlers.

“So men do this too?” Frank wonders what makes a guy choose being a male cuddler as a career path. “They must have their reasons,” he thinks and clicks on the list of profiles that belong to the female cuddlers. Frank has only been with girls, although, sometimes while he's jerking off he thinks about sucking a guy off, nice and slow, but that's part of another story.

“So... Big boobs,” Frank's eyes widen when he sees the first photo on the page. The profile belongs to a woman named Carrie, she's 34 years old and works in the Chicago area. “And that's an impressive cleavage, right there,” Frank thinks that that particular picture isn't helping to spread the message that this service is not related to sex, but as he scrolls down he sees that the other photos are not like that one. They are mostly of average looking women and they show only their faces. Even though, they probably have big breasts too, so maybe it's better to show them up front, just like Carrie does.

Frank explores further down not finding anything that really catches his attention. The profiles are just like the profiles on any generic dating website. They show personal information about these women like their name, age, the area where they live and work, their credentials. Also, the cuddlers talk a little about themselves. They let you know a few things about their personalities and their general interests, and complete that information with inviting messages like “Hey, are you feeling lonely today? Call me and I'll keep you company”.

Frank scrolls down quickly, not paying much attention to the written stuff anymore. He focuses on the photos instead, but they are not that interesting either, just photos of regular women. After passing a series of them, one of his eyebrows arches.

“A couple of gothic girls...” Frank glances at them; he thinks that that's a kind of interesting look, but he's not really into that. The next picture is one of a blond woman with a wide, toothy grin.

“Well, that's a big, kinda... No, definitely, scary smile,” he says to himself. People shouldn't post scary pictures of themselves if they're trying to attract clients, or... Maybe she's trying to attract the creepy ones. “There are opportunities for everyone out there in the market,” he thinks as he keeps scrolling down and... “Wait!”

He goes back up to a picture that he just passed. It's the photo of a girl with black, messy hair, bright, hazel eyes and a really cute, lopsided smile.

“Gee,” Frank reads her name. “It has to be the short for something". He wonders what her real name might be while he stares at that photo for a long moment. Gee is 26 years old, she is a professional cuddler –again, Frank wants to know what the hell do you have to do to become that–, she works in the Ney Jersey area, which is convenient because Frank lives in the same area, and according with the few lines that she wrote, she is the artistic type. She sings, writes, paints and likes comic books.

“Comic books?” Frank's brow raises. “That's kinda geeky,” he thinks, and that's totally fine. He likes girls that are kind of geeky an unconventional, but... 

Frank doesn't like this girl, no, it's just that her photo caught his eye and that's because, well, she's obviously pretty. She's the kind of girl that he would approach immediately if he saw her at a party or a club but, he's not considering hiring her... He's not, seriously, because he...

“Who hires a cuddle buddy online, anyway?” A voice in his head tells him. “¿How screwed up you have to be to actually pay someone to get yourself some physical contact and a semblance of intimacy?” Frank sighs harshly and rubs his face with his hand.

“That's pathetic,” he mutters darkly under his breath and closes the page immediately.


	2. Their first session

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you know, this is a work of fiction. I have no idea of what really happens during a session of touch therapy, so in this fic I'm just letting my imagination do its work and fill the blanks.

Frank has no will power whatsoever. He wasn't supposed to go back to that weird website again, but the truth is that he's visited it repeatedly this week, not only at work when he has nothing to do, but also at home, late at night when he's alone in his room.

He's reread the client contract, the list of benefits and even the testimonials – which he suspects that might be fake – several times, but the page that he keeps opening over and over again is the cuddlers profiles page. He scrolls down to that photo, the one that belongs to the black haired girl with the cute smile and stares at it for long moments, just considering the possibility.

"Is that a dating website or something," somebody says from behind him. Frank jumps in his chair, startled. He swirls around and sees that James is standing in the doorway of his cubicle. He walks in without an invite and lets a heavy stack of files fall over Frank's desk. This is typical of James, the stealthy motherfucker will chime in when you least expect it.

"You should send her a message and ask her out," he suggests pointing at the picture that is currently in the center of the screen of Frank's computer.

"I don't think so," Frank mutters, grabs the mouse and quickly minimizes the tab.

"Man," James puts one hand on Frank's shoulder and starts talking with that annoying, condescending tone that Frank hates. "You've been alone for a long while, you should start dating again; I can tell that your right hand needs a rest," he gives Frank a small, suggestive nod and his most obnoxious smirk.

"It rests good enough whenever I visit your mom," Frank retaliates. James just laughs it off and walks out.

"That's it," Frank thinks while rubbing his face roughly with both hands. James Dewees, the creepiest, stalkeriest guy currently working in this office has just made fun of him, so this is it. Frank is done with this stupid website and the stupid idea of hiring a cuddle buddy online. He goes to the history page of his internet navigator and deleates the damn adress. He doesn't want to see it ever again.

The rest of the day just sucks. His boss called the whole staff to the longest, most boring meeting in the history of work meetings. Then Frank, as a favor to the secretary that was busy at the time, answered a phone call from an angry client that yelled at him for at least ten minutes because of some mistake that the didn't even made, and later, he spilled his coffee on a pile of account reports that he had just printed and organized, so he had to start his work all over again just half an hour before his work day was supposed to be over.

Frank walks out of the office building way later than he expected, feeling tired and miserable. What bothers him the most about his shitty day is that James' words are still hovering in his head, and he hates to admit it, but maybe Dewees is right: Frank's been alone for way too long.

After one really long relationship with who was his high school sweetheart, Frank has been stumbling in and out a series of short, turbulent relationships with women that are just as fucked up as he is and that have had no problem with telling him "It's not me, it is definitely you," once that they are done with him. The last fight that he had in public with some crazy ex made him decide to stay single for a while, but the truth is that he really misses having someone around.

He sometimes yearns to have somebody lying next to him so he can forget how big and empty his bed usually is. He misses the closeness, the touch, the connection and all those things that he hasn't had in a really long time. He wishes that there was a way in which he could have all that without getting himself involved in yet another destructive relationship.

"There is one way," a little voice in his head suggests.

"There is one way," Frank repeats quietly as he keeps walking across the parking lot and toward his car.

That night, Frank gets back to his apartment carrying a six pack of beer and a cheese cake. He could blame what he does next on the dizzying feeling that he got after consuming a large amount of sugar and alcohol in a short period of time, but he knows that it wouldn't be fair. No, it is mostly his loneliness what is making him open that website again, but this time it's not just to stare at it and analyze it or whatever, but to actually make use of its service.

 

******************************************

 

On Thursday evening, Frank gets home a little earlier than usual and does some cleaning. It's not that his apartment is that messy, but tidying up his room and washing the dishes helps him with the anxiety that he's feeling right now. He could have avoided being in this situation, he actually had plenty opportunities to reconsider what he was going to do and forget about this crazy idea while he was pacing around the living room with his credit card clenched in his hand, but no, he had to type the digits down and request a one hour session with a professional cuddler.

Once he's done in the kitchen, he looks down at his watch. It's almost seven and he supposes that it is a little too late for him to cancel the session, so he just lets out a sigh and waits.

"This can't be that bad, right? You just ask for the girl, she comes to your house and snuggles with you; no sex and no fucked up emotions involved, easy and simple," Frank says to himself and that actually calms him down a little, but then the doorbell rings and he starts freaking out again. He jogs to the entrance of his apartment, feeling his heart racing and his stomach swooping. He stays behind the door with his hand around the knob for a moment.

"Why am I so fucking nervous?" A frantic voice inside his head asks , but before his mind can provide him with a plausible explanation, he gets startled by the sound of the bell that just started ringing again.

"Seriously, Frank," he says to himself, "You have to calm the fuck down; it's not like this is a date or something like that, this, well..." He sighs. Frank doesn't know what this is, but his inner monologue stops the moment that he pulls the door open and he sees her.

A young, smiley woman is standing on the threshold of his apartment. She is slightly taller than Frank – which he kinda expected it to be the case - and she's wearing dark jeans, a fitted blue and white T shirt, a denim jacket, and is carrying a big, purple bag on her shoulder. Her hair is a mess of black strands going in all directions and her eyes are bright and curious, and the exact same shade of hazel that Frank saw in her photo. He thought that maybe the flickering thing that he noticed in her gaze before was a trick of the light that was illuminating her face at the moment that they took the picture, but no, her eyes are just that pretty.

"Hi, I'm Gee from mycuddlebuddy.com," she says and her smile widens. "You must be Frank," Gee extends her hand and steps closer. Frank stares at her, blankly, but once that his brain makes a remarkable effort to start running again, he blinks and remembers the proper protocol for introductions.

"Um... Hi, yeah, I, I am," he says, stammering just a little. "It's nice meeting you," he shakes Gee's hand harder and longer than what is polite. Gee smiles big again. She must be amused by Frank's awkwardness, but he's not usually this awkward, he just gets like this when he's with a really attractive woman. Maybe hiring a hot cuddler wasn't a good idea. Maybe he should have hired the woman with the big rack or maybe the one with the scary smile. There was also this girl from Newark that seemed cool, but she also looked like if she was all of sixteen – _jailbait alert_ – so, no, that wouldn't be a good idea either.

Gee's grin fades after a moment during which Frank's internal rant is taking place. She looks at him speculatively and one of her eyebrows arches. "May I come in," she asks, somehow cautiously.

Frank blinks again. "Um, sure," he quickly steps out of the way to let her in.

Gee walks into the apartment with ease, as if it was already a familiar place for her. She goes to sit on the big couch in the living room and puts her bag on the coffee table.

"So, first of all," she says, "You have to sign the contract". 

Frank watches her as she takes a folder out of the bag. He walks there and sits down very carefully on the other side of the couch as Gee puts a printed sheet of paper and a pen over the table. "Have you read it before or do you want me to read it for you?" She asks.

"It's okay," Frank says immediately, "I already read it," several times, actually, but he doesn't mention that.

"So, you understand what the each clause establishes and you agree with each and every one of them?" Gee says with that same cautious tone that she used before.

Frank nods, "Yeah".

"Do you have any questions about the service?"

'Hundreds,' Frank thinks, but oddly, this doesn't feel like the proper time to ask them, so he just shakes his head, "No, at least not now".

"Okay," Gee nods and looks at Frank like she understands what he's meaning. "Whenever you need to ask something just do it," she adds with a reassuring smile.

"I will," Frank replies quietly and looks up at Gee. Their eyes meet and lock for a couple of seconds before her gaze drops.

"Come over here," she beckons and Frank scoots closer to grab the pen and jot his name and signature down on the dotted lines at the bottom of the sheet.

Gee puts both items back in her bag and then stands up. "So, where is it going to be?" She turns to take a look around the place and asks, "Your bedroom?"

"Yeah, in my bedroom; it's at the end of the hallway". Gee makes her way there with the same ease than before; her shiny, purple bag dangles down her shoulder, the back of her hair bounces and her hips sway a little as she walks into the room.

Frank follows her closely and gets startled when she suddenly stops short in front of the bed and turns around. She gives him a small, apologetic smile, "Why don't you go change," she says.

Frank remembers that the contract establishes that the clients have to wear freshly laundered clothing during the sessions and that he's still wearing his work clothes: dark gray slacks and a button down shirt that is mostly clean except for the little coffee stain on his belly, right above the belt buckle. He didn't consider changing, but he thinks that if they are lying in bed, it would be better if he wears something that is a little more comfortable.

"Okay," he nods and walks to the other side of the room where the dresser is placed. He opens the top drawer and takes out a pair of sweat pants and a long sleeve T-shirt that still smell like fabric softener thanks to the fact that he remembered and actually had time to do the laundry last weekend. Given that the contract also stipulates that they can't get undressed in front of each other, he takes both pieces of clothing into the bathroom and changes there.

Once that he's back in his room, he sees that Gee took her shoes off and that she's wearing more comfortable clothes too. She got rid of the jacket and replaced her jeans with a pair of pajama pants. Frank has seen those pajamas before, he's sure, but he can't remember where. The pants are black and have little crossed bones and Hello Kitty dressed as a pirate, with the patch on the eye and all, printed all over them.

"Nice pants," he says as he gets closer.

"Thanks," Gee replies with a small smile. She sits on the bed and pats it softly. Frank finds a little odd that a woman that he just met a few minutes ago is now in his room, wearing sleep clothes and inviting him to take a seat on his own bed, but he thinks that it's better to roll with it, so does as he's told.

"So," Gee starts talking and her tone immediately changes into a serious, more professional one. "The service consists in a session of touch therapy that includes cuddling and snuggling in bed. It is one hour long, um..." She lifts her wrist and glances down at her watch, "Fifty minutes now, actually," then continues.

"Given that this is a personalized snuggling experience, you can decide what you want to do during each session, for example, we can just lay down and cuddle, you can take a nap, or if you prefer it, we can talk. If that's the case, you get to decide what you want to talk about. Everything you say to me during the sessions is confidential and I won't share that information with anyone unless you agree to give out your permission first". Gee is talking fast like if she is reciting a script that she's memorized and repeated multiple times before.

"Numerous studies have proven that a touch therapy, like the one that you are about to receive, can help to improve both, your physical and mental health," she stops for a second, looks deep into Franks eyes and tilts her head a little to the side. She seems to be studying him; he just blinks a couple of times.

"I'm not sure of what you need yet" she says thoughtfully after a moment and narrows her eyes. "But I kinda have and idea, so we'll figure the rest out during the course of the sessions".

Frank nods repeatedly, he wants to give the impression that he's understanding the implications of what Gee is saying, but the truth is that this explanation is making him feel confused and a little uneasy.

'¿An idea of what I need?' He thinks, 'What does she mean by that? And, did she just say sessions? Like in plural?' Frank thought of this as a one time thing, just to know what this was about, but it seems that he just engaged with a series of several cuddling sessions. He seriously needs some time out to process this information and clear his mind, but he can't have it because Gee starts talking again.

"Do you prefer one side of the bed?" She asks while she's putting her bag on the bedside table, then she pulls the covers down a little and starts fluffing the pillows.

Frank stares at her. "No," he replies a little uncertainly. He usually sleeps in the middle of the bed so any side she picks it's the same for him, but before he can say as much, Gee is already in a horizontal position and beckoning for Frank to do the same. He takes a deep breath, kicks off his shoes and lies down, right next to her.

"You have a really nice bed," Gee comments once that Frank lets his head fall onto the pillow.

"Yeah, this is a pretty expensive mattress," he says without thinking. He isn't the kind of guy that brags about how much he paid for all the things that he owns, but he just made a comment that may give the impression that he is. Gee doesn't seem to care about that, though, she just smiles at him and nods.

"I can tell, so... what position do you prefer?"

"Um..." Frank has no idea what to respond to that. "I don't know..." He bites his lower lip and frowns slightly, "What do you recommend, I mean, you are the expert here".

Gee chuckles. "Well, most guys like spooning, do you want to try that?"

"Sure," Frank says, "Spooning sounds nice".

Then, all of the sudden, Gee flips around and scoots back, closing the gap between them so now her back side is pressed against Frank's body, then she bends her knees, slides one arm back, grabs Frank's wrist, tugs it lightly to place it around her waist and, just like that, they are spooning. Frank is now snuggling with a complete stranger and it is not exactly nice, but mostly awkward.

He belatedly remembers that given his introverted nature, he has always had trouble with physical displays of affection, especially when they come from or are directed to people that he barely knows, so he's feeling pretty uncomfortable and overwhelmed right now, plus his right arm is in a weird angle and he's lying on top of it. He hates feeling pins and needles so he tries to shift his body a little to the side, but Gee didn't leave him much space to maneuver here, so he just stays still and hopes that this will be over soon.

After a moment of silence, Gee lets out  a sigh. "You are really tense," she points out, "This isn't working for you, huh?" She turns around and looks right into Frank's eyes. He just presses his lips together and shakes his head faintly. "Maybe I rushed things," she says in a pensive way and sits up. "Let's try another position; turn over, please".

Frank huffs and, rather reluctantly, flips his body around. He feels stupid and useless right now and... "Hiring a cuddle buddy online?" He cringes.  "What the hell was he thinking? Seriously! He curses himself internally several times as he waits for Gee to do or say something.

"If you want this to work, you have to relax, okay?" She says, her tone is gentle but firm. She lays down behind him, but this time, she doesn't rush to be all over him, instead she leaves a considerable space between them. "We can try some breathing exercises to help you with that, so now breathe in deeply, hold the air in for a few seconds and release it very slowly," Gee speaks with a soft voice.

Frank has never believed much in the whole breathing and meditation techniques and all that zen stuff, but as he lets the air in and then out slowly through his nose, he can already feel a little less tense, so this has to be working. They repeat the same exercise a few more times until Frank is mostly relaxed.

"Now I'm going to move closer," Gee says, her voice still low and gentle. "You have to tell me if you don't feel comfortable with the proximity, okay?"

"Okay? Frank nods.

Gee shifts her body and moves closer very slowly. "Do you feel comfortable with this?" She asks, her cautious tone is back.

"Yeah," Frank replies. "And if I get a little closer?" She scoots forward until she has her body pressed against Frank's back side. This time he doesn't' feel pinned or trapped, this just feels right.

"Are you feeling comfortable right now?" She asks, it seems that Gee really wants to be sure that this is working for Frank and that's definately reassuring.

"Yeah," he repeats.

"Good, now I'm going to put my arm around your waist," she moves her arm forward and the moment that her hand touches Frank's hip, he flinches a little.

"It's okay," she whispers, taking her hand back, "I'm not gonna hurt you".

Frank snorts. Of course Gee's not going to hurt him, she looks completely harmless; she wouldn't hurt a fly and she must be thinking that Frank is stupid. "I know that," he says, rolling his eyes.

"Your brain knows it Frank, now we have to make your body to acknowledge it, so let's try again".

Gee slides her hand around him once again. Frank lets her hold him while he focuses on his breathing. "You remembered the breathing," she says; even when Frank can't see her face, she can tell that she's smiling at him. "So, how are you feeling?"

"Good," Frank answers immediately and he really means it. He's getting used to the sensation of Gee's warm body pressed against his own and to have her holding him lightly by the waist.

"I'm glad," she whispers and then starts caressing very gently the back side of Frank's hand and his wrist. She pulls back the sleeve of his shirt a little so she can have more direct contact with the skin of his forearm. Frank closes his eyes for a moment, the movement of Gee's hand on his skin is really soothing and he feels strangely lulled by it.

"You can take a nap if you want," Gee suggests, but Frank doesn't want to fall asleep, so he forces himself to open up his eyes again. "It's okay, I was just resting my eyes" he says, his voice sounding a little groggy. Gee hums knowingly and keeps stroking his arm. Frank wants to be conscious and aware of what is going on during this cuddling session, so he'd better stay awake. His body betrays him, though. After a moment, he falls asleep without even noticing.

"Frank," he hears a female voice calling him softly. "Frank," the voice says again from behind him. He belatedly remembers that that's Gee's voice. "Time's up".

"Uh?" Frank, squints and blinks a few times before opening his eyes fully, then he turns around. Gee is standing by the bed, wearing her street clothes.

"The session is over, I have to go now," she explains. Frank props up on his elbows and tries to get on his feet, but Gee stops him. "It's okay, I can let myself out," she says, "I just want you to have this," she takes a business card out of her bag and hands it to him. "It has my number so you can call me whenever you need company".

"Okay," Frank sits up and reaches for the card.

"Okay," Gee repeats and gives him a small smile, "See you soon then?"

"Sure," he replies and takes one last look at Gee's smile before she turns around and leaves the room.

Frank stays sitting on the bed until he hears the sound of the front door being closed, then he lets himself fall back on the mattress. He buries his face in one of the pillows, closes his eyes and inhales what is left of the scent of Gee's hair.

 


	3. Damaged

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is about cuddling and falling in love, but it is also about being lonely and not being able to get yourself some affection the way that you'd like, so in this chapter I write about the not so cute stuff.

Every Tuesday evening Frank goes grocery shopping. It's not that he's declared Tuesdays as the _Frank Iero's official grocery shopping day_ or anything, it's just that it is more convenient for him to go after work because the market is on his way home and because his provisions of fresh food almost always last one week, plus he likes sticking to a routine, routines are easy. Even though, right now, he really wishes that he had picked another day to go to the market.

“Ank,” he hears a female voice behind him, but he is not sure if it is calling his name. The rumble of the cart's wheels rolling over the uneven pavement of the supermarket parking lot is making a little hard to distinguish that voice and what it's saying.

“Frank!” as the voice gets closer, he can hear it more clearly and now he knows that, whoever is speaking, is calling his name for sure, so he stops pushing the shopping cart and turns around. Then he sees a short woman with dark hair and a toddler by her side, walking towards him. Frank thinks that he knows who she is, but the parking lot is dim and he hasn't seen this woman in a long time, plus she's with a child, which is new information that Frank has to add to his recognition process. He says the name that just came to his mind aloud, though. “Jamia?”

The woman smiles broadly when she hears her name. “Frank, hi!” She quickly gets closer and outstretches her arms to hold Frank in an all-encompassing and totally unexpected hug. “It's been so long since I last saw you,” she says into the crook of Frank's neck. Her embrace is warm and her tone enthusiastic. He always liked that about Jamia, her liveliness and her warmth.

“I know,” Frank replies when she pulls back. “It's been what? Seven...”

“Almost eight years,” she corrects.

“Eight years...” Frank raises his eyebrows and lets out a long gush of air. He knew that it had been a really long while, but now that they just put a number on it, it somehow feels even longer.

“Mommy,” the sound of a little voice makes Frank look down and see that the little girl standing next to Jamia is calling her and pulling insistently one side of her coat. Jamia leans down and lifts her up in her arms. Now that the little one is at eye level, Frank can see the similarities between them. Jamia and the girl have the same hair, the same little, pointy nose and the same big, rounded eyes.

“Who is this?” Frank asks.

“This is Lilly, she's...”

“Hi,” the girl interrupts before Jamia can finish the sentence and waves a hand in an awkward way that Frank finds extremely cute.

“Hi,” Frank grins at her and waves back. “So, you have a daughter?”.

“Two, actually,” Jamia tells him, “I had twins”.

“Really,” Frank's brow raises again, and stares at her for a second, thinking that he's missing something, “And were's the other one?” He asks.

“Cherry is with her dad; she needed to pee, so either Tom is creeping some women out in the ladies room or she ended up in the men's room again”.

Frank chuckles, but then his face falls a little when he realizes something.

“So you married Tom?” Tom's the guy that Jamia dumped Frank for, well, she didn't really dumped him, they had already broken up, yet still, it pretty much felt like it.

“Yeah,” she says, “We got married two years after we started dating”. Then Jamia tells him a little about their life together in the city and how they decided to move from New York back to Jersey when the family started growing and they didn't have enough space for the babies and the pets and stuff. Frank isn't really listening right now, he's still stuck, trying to digest the fact that Jamia married somebody else.

“Do you still work for the same company,” she asks out of nowhere and that question brings Frank out of his thoughts.

“Yeah,” he nods, “I still do”. After that, the conversation revolves around their jobs and careers, with Jamia doing most of the talking and Frank nodding and humming when necessary and adding bits of information every now and then.

“It was really nice seeing you again,” Jamia tells him with a small smile a few minutes later, and hugs him goodbye.

“You too,” Frank breaths out before watching her leave. He stays standing in the same spot for a moment, recalling how it was when he and Jamia were together. They started dating at a very young age when they both were still in high school. They had a tumultuous, _all or nothing_ kind of relationship that lasted more than anyone could have expected, and he loved her, he really loved her, that's why he did everything he could to get back with her after their numerous break ups, well, that was until Jamia met Tom. Now they're married and have kids, and for some strange reason, that fact is affecting Frank in a very unsettling way.

The rumble of the cart, the rustling of the bags and boxes being placed  in the trunk, and the music coming from the stereo of his car make a very good job keeping Frank from thinking for a while, but once that he's in his apartment, all he can hear is the same old overwhelming silence of an inhabited place. Most of the time Frank doesn't care much about it, he can walk in and out without noticing it, but right now, its presence is almost impossible to ignore, and he hates it, he hates it because it reminds him of how empty the place is and how lonely he usually feels in there.

The feeling exacerbates in moments like this, when he realizes that people are moving on with their lives, that they are getting married, and having kids, and Frank doesn't even know if that's what he wants anymore, but that's what people in their thirties are supposed to do, right? So maybe Frank should pursue that as well, and get the lovely wife and the cute kids and the nice house with the white picket fence, and hope that when he has all that, he will feel complete or some shit and not feel... He lets out asigh. Not feel like this, stuck and alienated and incapable of having a fucking healthy relationship with another human being.

And the worst part is that he's tried. Frank asked Jamia to marry him on more than one occasion and she always said no. She argued that they were too young, that their relationship wasn't going well, that she wasn't sure that she ever wanted to get married, but she did marry Tom, so it's not that she didn't want to get married, it was just that she didn't want to marry Frank, because the problem is always and has always been Frank. Apparently he is some sort of unlovable creature that is destined to spend the rest of his life alone and that thought hurts, it hurts and scares him, and...

“Fuck!” Now he's crying; he can feel the tears falling down his cheeks.

“Fuck!” There's a huge lump constricting his throat and make him hard to breathe. He flays his hands desperately and opens up his mouth as an attempt to get rid of it, but instead, a quiet sob comes out and this is not good, not good at all. Crying never ends up well for him, never, it always takes him to places he doesn't want to go, places that he avoids at all costs. He has to stop crying right now, he has to shut that stupid voice in his head that has brought up all these ideas and all this fucked up emotions, but the more he thinks about it, the harder it gets.

His breathing is hitching now and his heartbeat increases in the worst possible way and no, he can't; he cannot let his body do this. He learned how to control all these reactions a while ago, he can't let himself go back there. He walks agitatedly toward his room, but then the sound of the doorbell startles him in the middle of the hall.

“Gee,” he mouths. He completely forgot that he and Gee were supposed to have their second cuddling session tonight.

'A distraction! Yes!' That can help him to stop this.

Frank rushes to the door, but when he's about to open it, he stops short and his hip bumps the table by the entrance and the glass vase on top of it falls and crashes against the floor. He can't open the door; he can't let anyone see him like this, at the edge of a fucking panic attack. He presses his palms against the table and leans over, trying to catch his breath.

“Frank?” Gee says from the other side of the door, she knows that Frank is standing right there and probably knows that something's wrong. “Are you okay?” She asks. “Frank!” The alarm of her tone increases every time that she speaks and Frank hates that, he hates making other people worry. He wants to say something, but he can't, so he steps aside, feeling thin pieces of glass crushing under the sole of his shoes and opens the door.

“Frank,” Gee breathes out when he sees him. Frank can see the alarm in Gee's face for just a second, then her brow furrows and the alarm turns into determination. She holds him by the arm and takes him to the living room immediately.

“Panic?” She asks quietly as they both walk there. Frank is speechless, wheezing, so he just nods. She makes him take a seat on the couch and sits down right next to him. “Remember the breathing exercise we did the other day?” She asks, Frank doesn't respond, he just looks at her with wide, terrified eyes; his hands just started trembling a little. “I need you to breath in deeply, okay? Just the way we did the other day, can you do that for me?” She says, her gentle tone almost makes it to hide the worry that Frank can see reflecting in her eyes.

Frank nods again and takes a deep breath as Gee indicates it. She stays by his side for long minutes, holding him by the arm and counting slowly as Frank holds the air in his lungs. “It's okay,” she says repeatedly and they keep doing this until Frank can breathe evenly again and his heartbeat is back to normal.

Once that he feels that is mostly over, Frank lets himself sink into the seat. Gee takes a couple of tissues out of her bag and wipes the sweat off of Frank's face.

“You must be thirsty,” she says, her voice is still quiet and her tone gentle. “Let me get you something to drink”.

Frank can hear some rustling coming from the kitchen area. He knows that he should go there and help Gee; show her where the glasses are and stuff, but he really doesn't want to move right now, he feels pretty worn out. A few minutes later, Gee emerges from the kitchen with two cups of tea. She hands one to Frank and sits down next to him. Frank inhales the smell of peppermint as he waits for his tea to cool down a little. Then he remembers.

“Gee, I'm really sorry about this, I didn't remember that you were coming tonight; if you want to leave they already charged your time on my credit card, so you'll get paid anyway”.

“It's okay,” Gee says and gives him a small smile, “I want to stay”. Frank stares at her, feeling a little disconcerted by her reactions and the way that she has handled this whole situation, but he gradually accepts it.

"Okay,” he nods and takes a sip of his tea. After a moment, the silence stretches and he turns around, looking inside his head for something to say; maybe they can converse during the rest of the session, but then he spots the remote control on the coffee table. That second option seems easier. “Do you want to watch something?” He offers.

“Sure,” Gee nods.

He switches channels until they find some show that they both like. A few minutes into it, Gee scoots closer and grabs one of Frank's hand, twining their fingers together. Then, she tilts her head and lets it rest on Frank's shoulder. “Is this okay?” She asks, not taking her eyes from the screen.

Having Gee like this, really close to him is really nice and  comforting, actually. “Yeah,” Frank breathes out and tilts his head a little to the side and against Gee's.

“So, are you telling me why you were so upset before?” She says softly a couple of minutes later.

Frank can't say that he wasn't expecting being asked for an explanation, even though, that question catches him off guard. “I... Um...” he hesitates for a moment and mentally reviews the ways in which he can phrase the cumulus of thoughts that are crowding his mind before speaking.

“I ran into my ex earlier," he admits. "We talked for a while and some things I learned about her got me thinking...” Frank's eyes go down and away from the screen and he lets out a long sigh. “I sometimes have these extreme anxiety episodes,” he explains, “I hadn't had a panic attack in a long time, though,” Frank squeezes his eyes shot for just a second as a way to keep himself calmed and then continues. “I almost had forgotten about them”.

Gee tilts her face up and looks directly at his eyes. Frank can't hold her gaze; he ducks his head, feeling ashamed and uncomfortable, but then the feeling of Gee's hand squeezing his own in a reassuring way, makes him look back at her.

“That's okay,” Gee says; her voice quiet and comforting. “We all go through some pretty messed up shit every once in a while”.

Frank snorts and tries to smile at her as a way to thank her for the attempts of making him better; he's pretty sure that instead of a grin it looks more like a grimace, but hell, at least he's trying.

Gee shifts in the couch, turning her body a little to the side so now she's facing the screen. “Can I ask you something?” She says, “Would you hug me?”

Frank smiles, genuinely this time.

“Sure,” he answers without hesitation and scoots closer to wrap his arms around Gee's middle and let his chin rest on her shoulder. They spend the rest of the hour cuddling on the couch and watching tv.


	4. Bed talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They have a conversation.

 

After one very intense second session, they have had a series of mostly uneventful, yet pleasant cuddling sessions.

Gee has come to Frank's apartment every week for the past two months and he feels pretty comfortable around her now, although he still has this unsettling feeling before she arrives, like the moment when the doorbell rings and his heartbeat speeds up and his stomach does this fluttering thing, but it is not like what he felt before their very first session, because now it all dissipates once that he opens the door and gets to see those big, hazel eyes and that cute, lopsided smile, so he suspects that this might be a different kind of nervousness.

Last week, Frank paid for a two hour session so they could watch an entire movie together. As Gee was his guest, he let her pick the movie. Frank watched with a little, amused smile as Gee eagerly flicked through a huge stack of dvds that she took out some shelves. Her eyes went away from the dvd cases for a brief moment just to squint at Frank.

"You have a whole classic horror collection and you hadn't told me?" She asked; her tone containing an unexpected dose of indignation.

"I didn't know that you liked horror," Frank said in his defense.

"Of course I do," Gee replied; her voice and her expression indicated that the fact that she likes horror films is the most obvious thing in the world and, of course, Frank should have known that. He just grinned at her and stood up from the couch.

"I'm making some popcorn," he announced before going into the kitchen.

A few minutes later, he walked back into the living room with a bowl full with popcorn and two cans of soda and found Gee, sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, holding two dvd cases, one in each hand. Apparently she was reading the synopsis of both movies at the same time; the rest of the cases were scattered all over the place.

"Have you decided yet?" He asked while putting the bowl and the cans on the coffee table. "Um... Yeah," said Gee, looking down and picking up one of the cases that were on the floor, "This one, no, wait... This one." She changed her mind immediately. Frank snickered. Watching Gee picking a movie was like watching a little kid in an ice cream shop trying to pick only one flavor out of a list of dozens.

When Gee finally made up her mind and decided that she wanted to watch The shining instead of the other two movies that she had previously selected, they sat down on the couch and cuddled; Gee's head resting on Frank's shoulder, Frank's arm around her waist, one side of their hips pressed together and their fingers intertwined. They had done that on more than one occasion, but that particular time, for some reason, it all felt different.

During the scene in which the character of Jack talks to the bartender, Frank took his gaze away from the screen for a moment and stared at their laced hands, marveling a little on how soft and warm Gee's touch usually is and how their hands seem to fit perfectly together. Then Gee, completely unaware of the staring that Frank had been doing, let out a little, almost imperceptible sigh and Frank's whole attention turned and focused on the way that their bodies swayed a little with the subtle movement of their synchronized breathing.

He doesn't know when or how it happened, but he thinks that maybe this stopped being professional cuddling for him a while ago and started being something else entirely. The thought of that is making him hard to stay still while they are snuggling in his bed.

"Frank, are you okay?" Gee asks from behind him. Frank usually likes this reversed spooning thing that they are doing right now where Gee is lying behind him with one leg hooked around his calves and she's holding him by the middle. He likes it because it almost feels like she's covering him up completely, which she kind of is. Snuggling with a taller woman has its perks, Frank has found, but he feels a little too antsy now to really enjoy it.

"You've been fidgety since I got here," Gee points out, "There's something wrong?"

Frank can detect a hint of worry in her tone and he doesn't like that at all. He shifts and sits up immediately. "I'm okay, it's just that..." he lets out a long gushing breath and sees Gee sitting up right next to him.

He doesn't want to talk about it, he doesn't want to discuss with her this idea that has been hovering around his mind the whole day, but maybe that's the problem. He's been somehow avoiding talking in a serious, personal way with her so maybe this is the solution; maybe if they talk, Frank will be able to clear his head and figure out what is going on with him. He lets his back rest against the headboard and turns to look at Gee.

"I've noticed that we've never really talked, you know? Like... We never have had an actual conversation," he says.

Gee purses her lips and shakes her head, "Well, you're not much of a talker," she tells him, "And I didn't want to pressure you to talk to me or anything so..."

Frank winces a little. He's not a quiet guy exactly and it's not that he doesn't have anything to say, it's just that... "Okay..." he breathes out, "This might sound weird, but the thing is that I have these... I don't know, conversations with myself? And I can get so absorbed in my own head that I sometimes forget that there are people around me, you know?" Frank glances at Gee hoping that she understands this and doesn't think that he's crazy.

Because of the way that she is looking back at him, it seems that she does understand. "Yeah," she nods, "I guess that the same thing happens to me when I'm painting and stuff, like when I'm really focused on the creative process so... I get it," she says and shifts on the bed to face Frank completely and leans forward a little. "There's something in particular you want to talk about?"

And no, Frank didn't prepare a list of topics or anything, but he knows what he wants to accomplish in this conversation: he wants to get to know Gee a little better.

"Well, not exactly," Frank bites his lip, "But why don't you tell me a little about yourself," he suggests, thinking that this might be easier if he just lets her talk.

"What do yo want to know?" Gee gives him a little shrug; there's a hint of a smile tugging at her lips, though, and that indicates that she's somehow pleased that Frank's asking her to talk about herself. About the questions he wants to ask, Frank thinks that is better to start with the simpler, more obvious ones.

"Now that I think about it," he starts, "I don't even know your name, like your real name, I mean".

"It's Geraldine," she responds readily. "Geraldine Way".

"Geraldine," Frank repeats the name under his breath, trying it out, and then emmits his verdict: "I like it".

"Thanks," Gee grins, "My parents almost named me Gerard, though".

"Gerard?" Frank frowns; he has known a few girls with weird-ass names but... "Isn't that name a little odd for a girl?" He asks.

Gee snorts. "The thing is that before I was born, they were convinced that I was a boy," she tells him.

"Really?"

"Yeah, maybe I was pointing with my finger or something the moment they did the ultrasound because they all were convinced that there was something else between my legs,  so my parents had picked the name Gerard for me, but then, in the delivery room, they found out that I was actually a girl and decided to make a slight modification," she explains and looks down in a pensive way for a second or two before adding: "They all call me Gee, though".

Frank considers that, "And do you like it? I mean, I can start calling you Geraldine if you want," he offers.

"Nah," she scrounges up her nose, "Gee is fine," a little, secret smile illuminates her face. "I like names that are short and simple, like Frank," she says and shifts on the bed again, but this time, she scoots closer to nudge Frank's arm with her elbow.

Frank giggles. He can hear the sound of his own silly laugh, and he usually feels a little self-conscious about it, but with Gee things are different; it feels okay being himself around her.

"Tell me, there's a story behind your name?" Gee asks.

"Nah," Frank shakes his head dismissively, "I was named after my father and he was named after his father," he shrugs, "That's it, nothing interesting, really". Gee hums and then there's a brief moment of silence. Frank doesn't want the conversation to stop just yet, luckily, he remembers something that Gee mentioned a few minutes ago and brings it up.

"You paint, right?"

"Among other things," she replies, "Actually, I have a major in art".

"You do?" Frank's brow furrows, "So, if you're an artist, how did you end up with this job?" He thinks that deciding to become a professional cuddler is a very strange career move, especially if you have a cool job like doing art for a living.

Gee chuckles. "Freelance artists don't have a steady income you know? We have to wait until someone buys one of our pieces in order to get some cash and that can take time". Frank nods; he knows that art is not part of the basic essentials; not many people can afford to buy paintings.

"So," she continues. "One day I was desperate, you know? They were about to kick me out of the apartment and I didn't want to go back to my mom's basement, plus I needed to pay the bills and like... Buy food and stuff, and..." She lets out a little sigh. Frank presses his lips together and stares at her. He gets it, he knows what being broke is like.

"Anyway, a friend of mine manages the website for mycuddlebuddy.com," she says, "He told me that they were hiring men and women in their twenties that were available at random hours of the day, so I filled an application online and they called me the next day, then I went to an interview and they took that picture, you know? The one on the profile page?"

Frank nods, he remembers the picture pretty well and perhaps he even copied it and saved to some folder in his work computer, but Gee doesn't need to know that, so he doesn't mention it. Then he reconsiders what she just told him; it all sounds like the standard procedure for getting a job, but there's still something off about it.

"And that was it?" Frank frowns. "You became a professional cuddler after that?"

Gee laughs again. "No, first I went to this introductory class," she explains. "They told us about the service, the company's policies, the contracts; about how to deal with the clients and stuff. Then I took a course online that was about the theory behind the service, you know? About the health benefits and techniques and stuff; I took a test afterwards and then," she gives him a little, smug smile and finishes, "I became a professional cuddler".

Frank nods; all that makes sense, yet still, he doesn't feel completely satisfied with the answer. "But... Like... Cuddling with a complete stranger," he says earnestly, "This whole concept is a little, I don't know... Weird, isn't it?"

"It's the weirdest," Gee admits. "At first I didn't know what to expect, but now I actually like it".

"You do?"

"Yeah," Gee, looks right into Frank's eyes, then she drops her gaze and stares at the bedspread; her brow wrinckling a little and her bottom lip caught between her teeth. "On the one hand, it is pretty convenient; the pay is good and I still have a lot of time during the day to work on my art. I wouldn't have that with a regular job," she explains. "Regarding the actual cuddling with a stranger thing, well... There's always the occasional jerk, the stealthy one that tries to get in your pants. Even when they've read the contract, they don't seem to differentiate this job from prostitution, but I've learned to cut them off and they get banned from the client list immediately".

"Have you used one of your non-lethal weapons on them?" Frank asks, maybe it's a stupid question, but he's curious.

"No," Gee snickers, "I might though; I'm trained to aim and hit," she says, her voice low and serious now. She presses her hands together, pointing with her fingers and simulates firing a gun.

Frank doesn't know why, but, he can actually picture Gee holding a gun, like a laser gun or something, fighting the authority and kicking some ass. He laughs at that and flops back on the pillows that are situated against the headboard. Gee lies on her side next to him, propping herself on one elbow and stares into the space; her smile fades away slowly. 

"The majority of the clients, though," she continues after a moment, "Are people that really need this kind of contact with another person and we provide it to them, so I can tell that this service actually helps people". Gee turns to look at Frank and he suddenly feels weirdly exposed. He averts his gaze immediately and stays quiet for a couple of minutes.

"How do you know when a person really needs it?" He asks quietly; his eyes now fixed on the ceiling. Maybe asking this is a bad idea, but he still wants to know.

"They usually tell you," Gee answers simply, "I used to visit this man; his wife had died in a car accident and he was deeply depressed, I..." She huffs, "I can totally relate with that; I have had depressive episodes myself so I know how it feels".

"Oh," Frank breathes. He gets it now, this is why Gee's been so understanding with his issues; she has her own baggage.

Gee pulls down a pillow and lets her head sink in it, so now she's lying down on her back, just as Frank is. "When they don't speak out, you can tell by their body language," she starts speaking again, " Some of them are very clingy, you know? They cling to you like a koala bear; some pretend to be all distant and indifferent and some others just don't react well to the touch".

He snorts and squeezes his eyes shut, then he moves to the side as to face her, "Like I did, right?"

"Yeah, like you did," she says; her eyes flicker under the light of the lamp as she grins broadly at him. She gets closer a little after that. Frank can hear the rustling of her clothes against the beadspread and feel their knees bumping, so he moves his legs and hips to the side, allowing their bodies fit together on the mattress.

Having her this close, silently looking into his eyes, it is pretty obvious: he likes her, he really likes her. The only problem with this whole realization thing is that... he really likes her.

 


	5. Always offer the client a hand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes snuggling in bed with someone you like can lead to sexier activities ;)

Frank's in trouble.

After he realized that he has feelings for Gee, things went from temporary confusion, to quiet resignation. He knows that he and Gee are not supposed to do or be anything more than what is stipulated by the client contract that he signed on their first session, besides he doesn't even know if she likes him back.

Sure, Gee treats him in this special, really nice way; always smiling at him, laughing at his dumb jokes, interested in what he has to say and she's always touching him or holding him in one way or another, but she's probably like that with all her clients, because this is her job after all. Frank pays her a considerable amount of money to cuddle with him, and that price must include the little displays of geniality.

So Frank's decided to leave things the way they are. He's not going to tell Gee about this crush, even when telling her might result in him being able to have the all the affection that he wants for real, not as a part of any monetary exchange, but he doesn't want to take the risk of telling her because she might not reciprocate and he knows the consequences that any unrequested behavior may bring. Gee told him; guys who try to get more out this service get banned and that would mean the end of what they have now, which may not be real, but still, it feels like it sometimes.

So he kept calling Gee every week and they kept having their sessions in his apartment, sometimes cuddling on the couch and some others snuggling in bed, and everything was fine, really, until Frank's stupid libido got in the way.

Two nights ago he had one of the sexiest, most vivid dreams he's had in years. It's funny how he almost never remembers what he dreams, but some images of this particular dream seem to have got imprinted in his memory and have been hovering around ever since.

The situation was very simple: Frank and Gee were lying in bed in what seemed to be just another regular cuddling session, but it wasn't the bed that he currently owns, the queen size that he bought a couple of years ago, but the little, single one that used to be in the room where he spent his childhood in, back at his mom's house. The place was dim and they were spooning on the tiny bed; Frank lying behind her, one of his arms wrapped around her waist, his face ducked in the space between her shoulder and her neck; nothing out of the ordinary except for the fact that, for some reason, Gee was wearing a dress, a flare, black dress with thin straps.

For a moment, it seemed like she was sleeping; quietly lying there with her eyes closed, her breathing deep and even, but then she tilted her head up and muttered: “I like it when you play with my hair,” in a low, strange voice that Frank's is sure that she has never used with him before. She moved his hand from where it was tucked beneath her waist and then placed it on her chest with a quick, unexpected move. A stream of blood rushed to Frank's dick the moment that he felt the soft swell of her breast cupped by his hand.

“You like it?” Gee asked in that same low, sexy voice, but her tone was a little playful now, like if she was smiling as she said it. Frank wanted to say something, but he couldn't, all words were forgotten once that she decided to start moving her lower body and rolling her hips. The shape of her rounded butt was pretty obvious beneath the thin, silky material of the dress, especially because she didn't seem to be wearing any underwear.

“Yeah,” Frank panted in the crook of her neck. Deep down, he knew that there was something very wrong with this thing that was happening between the two of them and that he should have stopped it, but he couldn't help but to roll his hips as well and grind his already hard cock against Gee's enticing back side.

“Frank, dinner's ready!” A female voice saying from outside the room. Maybe it was his mom or his grandma speaking, he can't tell for sure, but that voice calling him made him go back to his senses. He pulled back and stared at Gee; his was heart pounding in his chest and his whole body got tense like if he was facing an imminent danger.

“Gee, we can't! The contract, remember? The contract!” He heard himself saying. Gee didn't react to his alarm, though, she didn't seem to be turned on either; she was staring at him with a blank expression, her eyes flat and her head tilted a little to the side questioningly.

“It doesn't say anything about offering the client a hand,” she said after a moment and Frank didn't get the meaning of that response until he saw Gee reaching out and sliding one hand beneath the waistband of his pants. He was breathing heavily and maybe moaning aloud as long, thin fingers wrapped around his cock and started jacking it. Any reservation or worry he may had faded away with each precise movement of Gee's hand; but he was asleep, not unaware. He knew that this was just a dream and that dreams that are this good, usually end at the best part.

Frank woke up a little after that and barely had time to tug his pajama bottoms down, closed a fist around his cock and stroked it a few times before coming hard and hot in his hand. After cleaning himself up, he stayed awake a for a while, lying on his side and staring at the shadows that the street lights and the branches of the trees growing outside the building produced and cast on the walls of his room.

He shouldn't be letting his mind do that to him; he can't be thinking about Gee in a sexual way. This is not supposed to be sexual; this is strictly platonic, meaning that they get to spend time together and enjoy each other's company, but they DO NOT FUCK. Even though, he's been having all these thoughts about her lately and he knows exactly when it all started.

Last Sunday night, Frank received an email saying that his favorite blog, _BB's corner,_ had been updated. He's been following this erotica blog for a while and he likes regular porno, with audiovisual content and all, just as much as the next guy, but there's so many things that video misses that erotica captures and translates in a very descriptive way that he really likes.

Besides the actual plot, this kind of stories gives you context; they tell you about the sensations, the emotions, the smell; about the salty taste that a diligent tongue savors as it explores every inch of exposed skin of a naked body. They condensate the whole experience and you can re-enact it with a little help from your imagination, well... At least the well written erotica does, because there are loads of shitty written porn out there, Frank knows that too.

But this woman, Beatrix Black – Frank assumes that she's a woman – is a great writer and he enjoys reading her stories a lot. He also likes the diversity of the pairings because he doesn't know what Beatrix is going to choose next: F/M, F/F, M/M, etc. Frank has a preference for heterosexual porn, but he can also enjoy some girl on girl action as much as watching gay porn.

So he clicked on the link and saw the title of two new stories on the sidebar. He recognized them because they were highlighted with a red line and had a little, yellow star flashing on the side. The first story, “High heels and the sound of a whip”, was about foot fetish and male submission. Frank is not into that, so he clicked on the second one that was called “The fifth fantasy”.

The story was about a young man, Derek, and a young woman, Payton, who lived in the same old building. They used to run into each other on the stairs pretty frequently and walk up together to their respective apartments since the elevator was broken. They usually made small talk during the flights and, on the outside, they had this little, polite, neighborly conversations, but on the inside, they were screaming at each other how much they wanted to pin the other against the wall and kiss the shit out of them.

They both felt this strong, almost unbearable attraction to one another; the only problem with that was that they were both too shy to act upon it. So the narrator describes how they meet on the staircase in four different occasions and what happens afterwards. After each brief encounter, they go to their respective apartments and get off picturing scenarios where one of them finally decides to make a move and they get to have lots of hot sex. Each character has two fantasies, the fifth fantasy is one that they both had separatedly before, and it becomes real one night when the elevator is working again.

That night, they see each other walking into the building. Derek greets Payton with a little nod and a smile and she waves a hand at him, then they take the elevator together. Their shoulders bump as they get in at the same time and that little touch, that would be insignificant under any other circumstances, makes them be hyper aware of each other's bodies.

They stand there silently. A little, awkward smile tugs at their lips the moment that their gazes meet again by accident. Payton's eyes go down immediately and she notices Derek's hands dangling aimlessly on the sides of his body; the same strong hands that she had pictured the night before, wandering along her bare thighs as they made their way up and into her dripping-wet pussy. She licks her lips unconsciously at the thought of that.

Derek notices the little sweep of her tongue under her bangs and it makes him fix his attention on her mouth, that mouth that he'd pictured trailing a path of kisses on his chest, then down his stomach, and then going lower and lower until those pink, full lips of hers wrapped around the head of his cock.

By the time that the elevator bell chimes and the doors open, they are both breathing heavily, staring into each other's eyes with no more than a foot of distance between them; lust reflecting on their dark pupils. The doors close again a second later and Derek presses some button so the elevator stands still as their bodies collide in a frantic kiss. They fuck, for real this time, against one of the elevator walls.

The moment he finished reading the story, Frank's gaping mouth curled into a little, knowing smile.

" _So hot, as always_ ;)” He wrote in a comment and posted it before turning his laptop off and going to sleep... Well, he didn't fall asleep immediately, first, he took care of the raging hard-on that said reading had caused him.

He laid down on his bed, naked of course, and used one of Derek's fantasies to create one for his own. It was the second one, where the fictional character was in the bathroom taking a shower and he imagined Payton sneaking in and joining him.

The woman had pale skin, dark hair that curled above her shoulders, and perky, little breasts that fit perfectly in his hand. Frank pictured himself and the woman fucking against the tiled wall with hot water pouring down on them. He imagined her repeating his name desperately while he trusted deep and fast inside her, then he pictured her sinking her teeth in the flesh of his shoulder as he made her cum; his hand squeezing his cock tight to simulate the feeling of her inner muscles clenching around him.

Right before coming, Frank whispered the woman's name. “Gee...” he said between gasps, and that's when he realized that the woman in his fantasy was not Payton or whatever, it was Gee that somehow had sneaked in it. He stopped moving his hand an instant, but immediately decided to close his fist around himself even tighter than before and not stop stroking until his orgasm hit him hard and left him wide-eyed and breathless for a moment.

So that's when Frank realized that this thing that he feels towards Gee stopped being platonic and developed into something less innocent and, therefore, he's in trouble.

He can still be quiet about his crush, he knows that he can, he is good at keeping his feelings from showing, the problem with this plot development is that once that his libido gets involved, his mind goes crazy and the middle part of his body acts on its own, resulting in unrequested and embarrassing boners like the one that he's sporting right now while he's actually in bed, snuggling with Gee.

The thing is that, this time, Gee didn't even asked, she just entered the room, laid down on the bed, tugged at Frank's arm and placed it around her waist, so before he knew, they were already spooning, just like it happened on their very first session.

Frank tried to keep any sexy thoughts far away from his head, but Gee shifted and bent her knees so her backside was pressed against Frank's crotch, and she started stroking very gently the inner side of his forearm; that particular part of his body has always been a spot for him and... well... She smells really good. She usually smells so good and Frank knows that it is not perfume or something like that, the contract doesn't allow them to wear any of that shit; it's just the smell of her shampoo and maybe soap on her skin, but is mostly her; her own personal scent that makes Frank hot.

“Frank?” Gee says, using her cautious tone and tilting her head up a little.

'Fuck! She just noticed,' he thinks.

“Is that...?” She turns around and Frank sees her eyes widen when she spots the notorious bulge in his pants. He cringes and throws his body back immediately.

“Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to... Sorry,” he repeats while sitting up and eagerly pulling down at his T shirt. “I don't want you to think that I'm a pervert, I'm just...”

“Frank,” Gee sits up as well and grabs the wrist of one of his frailing arms, “I know that you're not a pervert,” she says.

“No, seriously, Gee, I'm...”

“Hey,” she interrups him before he can apologize again. “Frank, it's okay,” she speaks gently. “Intimacy boners happen, right?”

'Intimacy boners? Of course!' Frank thinks. “Yeah, this is totally that, there's nothing sexual about this,” he assures her.

“I know,” Gee grins at him. “Men have erections in the weirdest situations; having one while you're snuggling with someone it's just normal, don't you think?”

Frank breathes out, feeling relieved now that he sees that she's not scandalized by this, but he still needs to know what to do next.

“So, has this happened to you before? I mean, with other guys during a session?” He asks.

“Yeah,” Gee nods.

“And what have you done then?”

“Well...” She bites at her bottom lip pensively. “They usually subside quickly,” she says, giving a little dismissive shrug, and then she looks down at Frank. “But I see that your little friend is still up,” she turns her face away immediately, biting back a grin.

“Oh god!” Frank looks down and sees that his stupid shirt went back up leaving his hard-on exposed again. As he grabs a pillow and places it on his crotch, he can see Gee shaking with laughter out of the corner of his eye.

“Gee!” he whines.

“Sorry,” she presses her lips together as a way to make herself stop giggling. “Maybe you can go take care of it in the bathroom,” she offers after a moment.

“What?!” Frank's shocked, he can't believe that Gee is seriously suggesting that. “I'm not going to...” he stops and blinks, baffled. “I'm not going to do that with you here!” He says emphatically. Gee sneakers again. Frank had expected to see her react with indignation and maybe a little modesty before one of his unwanted erections, but instead, she seems to be amused by this unfortunate situation.

“Look,” she says, still laughing a little as she stands up from the bed, “I'm going to the kitchen to make some coffee while you...” She moves a hand in the general direction of his crotch and adds “While you let your horses cool down a little, then we can go to the living and watch tv”.

“Okay,” Frank mutters under his breath; a belated blush heats up his cheeks.


	6. Saturday afternoon at the Home Depot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frank needs a light bulb.

Two weeks after the infamous _unwanted boner incident_ , Frank is sitting at the kitchen table debating with himself whether to call Gee for a session or not. He's been staring at the number on the screen of his cell phone for a while and his finger almost pressed _call_ a couple of times, but he threw it back quickly before he could do something stupid.

After spending several sleepless hours thinking about Gee and the whole professional cuddling service, he came to the conclusion that it would be better if he stopped calling her, at least for a while, at least until he could figure out what to do with himself and his goddamned feelings.

Frank is good at hiding things from people, he really is. He can wear his poker face whenever he wants and not allow others to see beyond that, but with Gee things are different. Somehow she gained access to his inner side; his walls seem to disappear whenever she's around, so he's afraid that the next time that they are together, she would look at him and see in his eyes what he is really thinking at the moment; that she would see how bad he wants to kiss her and be with her for real. And then Gee would withdraw because she might not reciprocate, or maybe she might. There's something in the way that she touches him and the way that she smiles at him that tells Frank that maybe she is into him too; he can't say for sure, but there's a possibility.

Either way, she couldn't be with Frank because of the contract and because of the business relationship that they have established: he is the client and Gee is the service provider. Being romantically involved with a client violates the company's policies and it would put her job at risk, and Frank knows how much Gee needs that job.

Thanks to her job as a professional cuddler she's been able to pay for her apartment and work on her art as much as she wants and afford all the materials that she needs for that. Gee told him once that she had sent pictures of her latest pieces to a friend that works at some important gallery in New York, and that she told her that they were interested in including her work in one of their shows, but she needed to put a collection together first, so Gee's been working on that ever since. Exhibiting there is a breakthrough opportunity for her and Frank doesn't want to ruin that by putting her at risk of losing her job. Plus, Frank feels like a fucking living cliché: he is the lonely, screwed up guy that falls for the hooker that treats him nice. Not that he's saying that Gee's a hooker, of course, but his brain seemed to have made a permanent connection between the cuddling service and prostitution since he first found out about it and now he can't get rid of it and...

“Fuck!” He buries his face in his hands and groans loudly. He's fallen for her, hasn't he? A long gush of air leaves his lungs in the form of a sigh. He's seriously fucked.

                                                                                                                                      *******************************

Later that week, he and his friend Ray are having lunch on the roof deck of the office building where they both work. It's a big, open space that is mostly empty during the winter time when only a few smokers go out there and stand by the door with their freezing hands tucked in their pockets and a cigarette between their lips, but when the spring begins, they put a bunch of ornamental plants and a line of tables with big umbrellas on them, and it becomes a really nice place to spend their lunch break. Actually, this is the only place in the whole building that Frank really likes.

“So,” Ray starts talking with a mouth full of turkey sandwich. Frank takes a bite of his own meal and glances up at him, expectantly. “That girl, you know, the one in the photo that you stare at the whole day,” Ray says, “Is she your girlfriend?”

Frank almost chokes on his salad. Ray puts a bottle of iced tea in one of Frank's frailing hands and the shorter man gulps the liquid eagerly while his friend pats his back.

“I don't stare at it the whole day!” Frank says indignantly once that he's swallowed properly and is able to speak again.

“Dude,” Ray squints at him with a look that is as condescending as his tone is. “My cubicle is across from yours; I walk by pretty often during the day and I've seen you staring at that pic more times than I can count,” he explains.

Okay, so Frank copied Gee's photo from mycuddlebuddy website and saved it in his computer, and maybe he looks at it every once in a while and... Okay, maybe these past days he's been staring at it for long minutes instead of doing his work, but that's just because he's trying to figure some things out and looking at her picture while he's thinking somehow helps with the process, that's all.

He tells Ray that last part and the frizzy haired man just smirks at him. That makes Frank seriously consider rearranging the location of his desk, his file cabinets and the book shelves; maybe he can also get some curtains or blinds installed in his cubicle so no nosy coworkers will able to see what the hell is he staring at in his goddamned computer.

“Yeah, right,” Ray says, taking another bite of his sandwich. He chews quickly before talking again. “Have you asked her out yet?”

Frank looks down at his plate and considers that for a moment. What they've been doing during the sessions can be considered as dating, right? Watching movies, having coffee and cookies, talking about music, comic books, their jobs; cuddling and snuggling with her... Frank thinks that all that definitely counts as dating, except for the part where it is all regulated by a contract.

“Yeah,” Frank says, a little reluctantly. “We've had a few dates”.

“And has it been any good?” Ray asks, looking at Frank with wide, curious eyes.

“Yeah, really good, actually; she's awesome,” Frank replies, sincerely.

“Then what's the problem?” Ray looks puzzled before Frank's apparently unjustified pining.

Frank grimaces and pokes the spinach in his plate with his fork. “I don't know if she wants what I want,” he says with a rather defeated tone.

“And why don't you ask her?" His friend suggest. "Tell her how you feel and what you want and ask her if she wants the same”.

“Toro,” Frank huffs, “You make it sound so fucking easy”.

“It sounds easy because it fucking is, man,” as Ray explains this, there's a strange aura of wisdom surrounding him or maybe it's just the glare of the sun reflecting on his hair. Anyway, Frank just looks at him and sighs, then pushes the plate away from him; he's not feeling hungry anymore.

 

************************************

 

The following Saturday, Frank walks into the kitchen to make some coffee. It is not that early, but the room is still dim due to the fact that the windows are facing west, so the place doesn't receive any direct sunlight during the mornings. He flicks the switch on the wall, but the lights don't turn on. He just paid the electricity bill and there hasn't been a storm or a shortcut in the building or something like that that can cause a failure of this nature, so the problem is way simpler than that: he has to replace a light bulb. Unfortunately, he doesn't have any at hand.

He consideres going to he nearest store to buy one, but then he contemplates the whole room. The kitchen is dark also because of the color of the walls; they are painted in this dull gray that he never really liked but he hasn't made himself change. Maybe it's time to do that...

Yes, he can go buy a can of paint in a bright color and some brushes... But if he paints the room, he would have to replace the tiles that cover a section of  the walls and maybe he can buy new blinds for the windows and replace the cabinet doors with ones that are made of glass instead of solid wood, so he can see what's inside them, and he could also put lights in the cabinets and... He seriously needs to stop watching those decoration shows because, apparently, they have installed some weird interior designing ideas in his head.

Even though, he thinks that starting a house renovation project will be beneficial, not only for the appearance of his kitchen, but also for his mental health: it can help him to keep his mind busy and make him stop thinking so frequently about Gee, so he goes to Home Depot after lunch.

Frank has been wandering in the numerous aisles of the store for a about an hour, but all he has managed to put in his shopping cart is a box containing a single light bulb. He's been reading price tag ater price tag and making some calculations and that has kept him from stuffing the cart with items because he realized that he can't pay for them. He's already spent a lot of money in some therapy sessions that he's been having once a week these past months, so he can't afford to pay for a big redecoration project now. He really wants to make it happen, though, but it will have to wait for a while.

In the mean time, he's at the aisle where all the electric lightning stuff is, trying to figure out what is the best light bulb for his kitchen. He has already selected one that produces a yellow, warm light, but he's still a little undecided about it, so he keeps examining the variety of products when he hears a known voice calling him from the end of the aisle.

“Frank?” The voice says and Frank's eyes widen instantly the moment that he turns around and sees who is calling him. Gee, the last person that he could have expected to see here, is now walking towards him.

“Hi,” she says; one of her big, toothy grins  illuminating her face.

“Hi,” Frank replies, his voice sounds oddly quiet, or maybe it's just the loud thump of his heartbeat, ringing in his ears, that is muffling the sound of his own voice.

When Gee is standing at no more than two feet away from him, a sudden impulse of hugging her makes him step closer and move his body forward, but he immediately pulls back and tucks his hands in the pockets of his jeans. He doesn't really know if that kind of displays is allowed when they are not in a session, so he keeps his hands for himself.

“I wasn't expecting to find you here,” Gee tells him, a little smile is still tugging at her lips.

“Me neither,” Frank definitely wasn't expecting that this little shopping trip would end with him and Gee meeting again.

“I'm glad I did, though,” she says, and her initially chirpy tone shifts into a lower, more intimate one. Frank wants to respond to that; maybe say something witty, but he can't make himself talk, not when all his attention is focused in the way that Gee's eyes flicker under the bright lights of the lamps and chandeliers that are surrounding them.

Gee's gaze drops after a moment and Frank sees her turning away a little awkwardly. “So, what are you buying?” She asks once that her eyes settle in the practically empty cart that is parked right behind Frank.

“I'm starting a kitchen renovation project,” he says, and well, he is not exactly starting it now, but he eventually will. “So, I needed some lightbulbs and stuff,” he adds and glances back. An urge to cringe hits him when he sees how lonely and pathetic the little box that is placed in the middle of the big, orange cart looks. He diverts the attention from it quickly, though.

“How about you?” he asks. 

 Gee rolls her eyes and huffs, that gesture makes Frank notice that she actually looks tired. The dark circles under her eyes are barely noticeable under a layer of concealer, yet still, Frank can tell that she's not been having as many hours of sleep as she needs. Maybe she's had a lot of work lately.

“We're buying some things to fix the sink,” Gee says.

“We?” Frank is confused because he can't see anyone standing by Gee right now, so unless she's one of those weird people that refer to themselves in plural, there has to be another person accompanying her.

“Yeah, me and Mikey, he's my...” She turns around, disconcerted, then takes a couple of steps forward while craning her neck, obviously looking for someone. “Where is he?” She frowns, "Did you see a tall, skinny guy around here?”

“Nope,” Frank shakes his head.

Gee's eyes go narrow all of the sudden and she grits her teeth, “He must have gone to buy a slushie, the slob...” Her tone and her eyes go back to normal as she continues talking. “Anyway, the thing is that Mikey clogged the sink with his hair, again”.

“You guys live together?” Frank interrupts because he needs that information to follow the conversation. “Yeah,” she nods. 'Then Mikey must be her roommate,' he thinks.

“So, he tried to fix it, but of course it only got worse, and then when I got home late at night, I used a tool in a way that it wasn't supposed to be used and...”

“It got even worse,” says Frank, anticipating a disastrous result.

“Yeah," Gee nods. "I spent more than an hour getting the bathroom clean and dry, so this morning I called my friend Bob and he agreed to help us fix it because there's no way we can afford a plumber now; and that's the reason why we are spending our Saturday afternoon at the Home Depot”.

Frank grins. “How do you know that it was his hair what clogged the sink and not yours?” he asks, because everybody tends to blame the other person when there are damages around the house.

“Because he's blond now and I'm not, well, not anymore,” she explains.

“Were you blond once?” Frank frowns because he can't picture Gee as a blond.

“I was blond twice, actually”.

“Twice?” Frank sneakers, “You have to show me pictures of that sometime”.

“Sure, I have a whole bunch of photos from my blond days,” she flicks her hair ostentatiously over her shoulder and smiles at Frank.

“I'd love to see them all,” he replies, still grinning wide.

They stare at each other for a moment. Frank's smile slowly fades away as he becomes aware of Gee's proximity. His heart is beating fast again and he gets that weird fluttering feeling in his stomach, but he can't take his eyes away from Gee's, he cannot even think, not until he notices that she is biting the side of her bottom lip. Frank's gaze drops immediately and he stares at her mouth. He really, really wants to be the one biting and sucking at that lip.

“Gee!” A tall, skinny, blondish guy appears at the other end of the aisle. Frank steps back, baffled.

“I found the pipe,” the guy says.

“Are you sure that's the kind of pipe that Bob requested?” Gee asks, raising her voice. “Because he will hit you in the head with it if it's not”.

“I know this is the same kind of pipe that you broke,” the guy retaliates, raising a smug eyebrow at her.

Gee, doesn't seem convinced though, “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” the guy rolls his eyes, “I'm gonna get a slushie now”.

“No! Wait...” Gee says, but the guy's already gone.

“Ugh!” She groans, visibly exasperated.

“Is that Mikey?” Frank asks, cautiously.

“Yeah,” Gee exhales, angrily, “And you know what? I love him, but if I he clogs the fucking sink again, I will strangle him with my bare hands,” she glares at the space where Mikey was standing a second ago; her jaw set and her fists clenched into balls.

Frank looks at her with what an external observer might describe as a ridiculously blissful smile. Gee is threatening to murder a guy right now and Frank can't help but to find it adorable; that only proves that he is really gone for her...

“Wait!” Frank's expression shifts instantly. “Gee loves Mikey? So, he's not just her roommate, he is... Is he her boyfriend?!” Frank's heart sinks. “Of course Gee has a boyfriend! A girl like her wouldn't be single,” he thinks and a ragged sigh slips out of his mouth.

“Gee,” Mikey appears again from behind some lamp shades, “I found another pipe and I'm sure that this one looks exactly like the one that you broke”.

“Oh my god!” Gee rubs her face and yells, “Mikey, drop those fucking pipes and go get your goddamned slushie already!”

Meanwhile, Frank is staring at the floor with his brow furrowed and a queasy feeling in his stomach.

“Frank,” Gee says in a softer voice, “I have to go now”.

“Yeah” Frank nods feebly.

“You haven't called me lately”.

Frank looks up at that. “No, I... I was out of town,” he blurts an excuse.

“Oh,” Gee nods, “But you're calling me soon, right?”

Frank can't help but notice the hint of hope that comes with that question, so he decides to lie; it seems easier that way.

“Yeah, sure... I'll call you,” he says.

“Good,” Gee grins, “See you then”.

Frank stays standing in the middle of the aisle for a while, staring at the flickering light of the chandeliers and feeling fucking miserable.


	7. Definitely not Waycest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The misunderstanding is solved :)

Dealing with an aching heart is hard, so fucking hard that Frank has decided to quit trying. Right now he's in his cubicle sitting in a position that some people - namely his coworkers - consider odd, but he doesn't give a shit about that.

He shut down his computer and his phone, then pushed away the keyboard, his coffee mug, the mouse pad and some stupid documents that he had stacked there in front of him and just let his face fall, not very gently, against the wooden surface of his desk.

He's been vegetating, staring into the space and trying not to think about anything, for the last forty five minutes or so. He was supposed to be working on... Well, he doesn't even remember what the hell was he supposed to be doing right now, but the thing is that he is not productive like this; he simply cannot focus on his work because he can't stop thinking about... He sighs. So he's decided to leave the work for later and just let himself sink in this little puddle of self-pity and gloom that he has created for his own recreation.

The flaw in his plan is that the people around him don't seem to acknowledge his right to mope in peace. First, James walked in, poked him in the ribs and said: “Are you okay, dude?” in a tone that Frank interpreted as his mildly worried one. Frank didn't answer, just looked up and let out a weary sigh.

“Just checking,” James shrugged and walked out.

At least Dwees had the decency of being direct and brief but then, a few minutes later, a small crowd gathered outside Frank's cubicle. They stood there, watching him and whispering something that he wasn't able to hear quite clearly, but that he figured that it wasn't exactly good.

“Frank, are you okay?” Lindsey, one of the girls that work in the finance department, finally asked.

Frank cringed, tilted his head up and glared. He was about to yell something nasty at them, but then he saw concern in their faces and refrained. “I'm okay,” he mumbled. “ Just tired”. The response made the crowd disperse, although Lindsey didn't look convinced. Frank ignored her and slowly let his face fall down again.

After that, he enjoyed about ten minutes of good, uninterrupted moping until Ray Toro decided to come by.

“Ray, if you are here to ask me if I'm okay, I swear to god...” Frank tells him between gritted teeth; his right cheek still plastered against the hard surface of the desk.

“I'm not here to ask you that,” Ray responds, wearily, “Is obvious that you're not”.

“So, to what I owe this honor?” Frank waves a hand in the air in what is supposed to pass as a bow.

Ray squints at him, evidently unimpressed. “I'm here to ask you if you're coming to the show tonight”

“The show? What show?” Frank frowns.

“Dude, I sent you a flyer like a week ago, haven't you seen it yet?”

Frank looks at Ray with interest and finally peels his face off of the desk.

“Is your band playing tonight or something?” He asks. Hearing about Ray's band playing is always good news, but right now is especially convenient because going to a rock show is the perfect opportunity for Frank to do some venting and he really, really needs to vent.

“It's an art show at the gallery where Krista works”.

Frank immediately deflates after that answer.

“The pieces are mostly from young artists that are exhibiting for the first time and they don't have many fans or whatever, so Krista asked me to help her inviting people,” Ray explains. “She pretty much needs to fill the room and for that she needs your collaboration; Frank, we need you,” he tells Frank in his most earnest tone and squeezes lightly one of his shoulders.

Frank gives him a skeptical look. “Ray, you are aware that I know shit about art, aren't you?”

“I am,” Ray nods, “But these things aren't that artsy, you know”.

Frank frowns; he doesn't know because how can an art show not be that _artsy_?

Ray ignores Frank's incredulous look and keeps trying to convince him.

“And there's this girl, um... Geraldine, I believe”.

“Geraldine?” Frank's eyes go wide instantly at the mention of that name.

“Yeah, I saw her paintings the other day when I picked Krista up at the gallery; she has this supernatural theme going on, so all her paintings consist of these dark, mysterious scenarios with some weird creatures coming out of them and shit; they're pretty cool, you're gonna like them, I'm sure”.

Frank blinks and closes his gaping mouth, “So, the name of the artist is Geraldine, isn't it?”

“Yeah, I don't remember her last name but you can check it in the flyer I sent you by email”.

Frank turns his computer on immediately, but, of course, it takes ages to start. He hits the screen angrily. “This old piece of...”

“You can come see it in mine,” Ray offers and the two of them walk to cubicle across the aisle. Ray sits down opens his email and scrolls down until he finds the message. As soon as the attached file opens Frank can see it. Geraldine Way is one of the first names on the list of young Jersey artists.

“That's her,” Frank points at the screen.

“Who,” Ray asks him.

“Gee, she's the girl from that photo, you know?”

“Oh,” Ray nods once that he remembers, “The one you're in love with”.

“I never said I was I was in love with her,” Frank protests; there's a good dose of indignation in his tone.

“Nope,” Ray shakes his head slowly, “You didn't because you live in constant denial, but you can't be more obvious, dude,” he pats Frank's back gently and gives him a knowing smile, “So, you're coming, right?”

Frank grimaces, "I don't know man, she..." he huffs, "She has a boyfriend.

"A boyfriend?" Ray frowns, "But you said that you two had gone out on dates or..." He thinks about it for a second and then asks: "Is she cheating on this guy with you?" 

“No!” Frank says, frustated.

“Then what? Do you guys have a polyamory thing going on?”

“Polyamory?” Frank repeats, dumbfounded. Ray's brain works in twisted ways sometimes.

“No, it's not that; they're just a regular couple and I'm an idiot for thinking that she wanted more than...”

“What?” Ray looks at him, quirking one of his eyebrows.

Frank squeezes his eyes shut and lets out a long sigh. “Than whatever we had,” he mutters, then opens his eyes again and fixes his gaze on the screen of the computer.

“I would like to see her paintings, though”.

“Then go to the show”.

“Ray,” Frank says, wearily.

“No, seriously Frank, I think that it would actually help you to get over her, you now?”

Frank frowns, he thinks that it would have the exact opposite effect. “This is her first show,” Ray starts explaining, “So I'm sure that the other guy will be there”.

“Yeah, I'm sure of that too, now how does that benefits me?” Frank asks because he doesn't understand Ray's point or even if he has one.

“Look, sometimes when you're pining over someone the best way to get over them is to see them with their current boyfriends, you know? I don't know exactly how it works, but it does,” Ray tells him, earnestly. “Do you remember Angie?”

“Your ex?” Frank asks; his brow raised.

“Yeah, after we broke up I spent months pining over her”.

“I remember that," Frank nods. "You were super whiny back then”.

“I was,” Ray agrees easily, “But then I saw Angie with her new boyfriend walking out of that club and I suddenly realized that she had moved on and that I had to do the same, and I did. The following week I asked Krista out and the rest is history”.

“So,” Frank considers that for a moment, he's frowning and biting one side of his bottom lip in the way that he usually does when he's thinking really hard about something, “Are you saying that if I see Gee with Mikey, that's the guy's name by the way, I will stop pining over her”.

“Well,” Ray shrugs, “It worked for me”.

Frank stares at him. He's not sure that taking love and relationship advice from Ray Toro is a good idea, but he's the only guy that Frank knows who's currently in a healthy, committed relationship, so he's got to be doing something right.

“Think about it,” Ray says, “You can go to the show, see her paintings and maybe say hello to her, that's all. You can let her go after that”.

Frank raises an inquisitive eyebrow at him, “Let her go?”

Ray snorts, “C'mon, Frankie, you know what I mean”.

Frank just sighs.

 

******************************

 

Maybe listening at Ray's weird theories about pining wasn't a good idea after all, but what the hell, Frank's already here, outside the gallery, so all he can do now is test them and see if they work.

He walks in a little hesitant and stands by the door for a moment to take an exploratory look of the place, which is already full of people. It's a really big room with tall walls painted in white and dark red. It's not the fancy gallery that Gee had mentioned before, and Frank is thankful because he definitely wasn't in the mood for going all the way to New York tonight; yet still, this gallery it's a little intimidating. Frank had never been in one of these shows and he is not sure of what he is supposed to do, so he first goes to the place that he finds the most familiar, the bar. He grabs a glass of wine and stands there, with one hand tucked a little awkwardly in his pocket as he takes little sips of the clear liquid every few seconds.

“Frank! Hey!” He turns around and sees Ray calling him from the other side of the room.

“You made it,” Ray tells him once that Frank meets him there.

“Yeah, well...” he mumbles and takes a sip of wine.

“Have you seen Gee's paintings yet?”

“No,” Frank shakes his head, “I just got here”.

“Let me take you there”. Frank follows Ray through the crowd of people gathered along the gallery and into another room, which is smaller and not as noisy as the main one.

“Here,” Ray points at one of the walls where Gee's paintings are hanging, one beside the other.

Frank stares at them, fascinated. The paintings are just as Ray had described them, dark and mysterious. They also convey a variety of emotions, Frank can perceive them reflected on the faces of the fictional characters that Gee traced on the canvases; they match perfectly with the atmosphere of the spaces that she created in each piece. Frank ignores all the technicalities of graphic arts, but he can understand the relation between emotion and art, and given that Gee seem to have an extraordinary ability to portray that, he can tell that this painting is really good.

After a long moment, he moves to another wall to admire the rest of the pieces. He's engrossed looking at them, when he notices that someone is staring at him out of the corner of his eye. He turns to look at whoever that's standing there and as soon as he recognizes him, Frank quickly turns to face at the wall again.

“Shit!” He hisses under his breath and Ray steps closer, leaning in a little to hear what Frank is saying.

“What?” Ray asks.

“That guy over there,” Frank whispers and beckons in the direction of the man, Ray turns to look behind him, discreetly. “That's Mikey”.

“Gee's boyfriend?” Frank nods.

“Shit,” Ray says, “He's coming over here?”

“What?” Frank turns back and sees Mikey getting closer to where they are standing.

“I'm gonna go find Krista,” Ray says not very smoothly.

'Damn Ray Toro and his stupid conflict avoidance issues,' Frank thinks as he sees his friend walking away.

“Hey,” Frank turns around the moment that he hears Mikey's voice next to him.

“Hey,” he replies with a little nod.

“You're Gee's friend, right?” Mikey asks, looking a little curiously at him. Frank hesitates and pretends like he doesn't know what Mikey is talking about.

“You were talking to her the other day at Home Depot,” Mikey says with a hand gesture.

“Um...” Frank wonders what did Gee tell Mikey about him and if he has to worry about getting punched in the face by a jealous boyfriend, but Mikey doesn't look angry or anything. He seems like a laid back guy who's actually interested in what Frank is going to say, so he lets himself relax. “Yeah, I'm Frank,” he finally replies and extends his hand.

“Frank," Mikey nods in recognition.  "Right, I'm Mikey”. After shaking hands, he asks: “So, did Gee invite you to the show?” 

“No,  it was actually my friend Ray, the one that just left,” he explains, “His girlfriend works here so...”

“And have you seen Gee yet?”

“No, um... I wanted to see her paintings first,” Frank wasn't really planning on meeting Gee here, he was secretly hoping that he wouldn't see her at all so he could have an excuse for not talking to her again, even when he is actually dying to do so.

“Well, you should definitely go find her, she will be glad to see you again,”  Mikey assures him.

“You think?” Frank looks at Mikey a little incredulously.

“I'm pretty sure,” Mikey says, nodding.

Frank studies him for a moment, trying to figure out a way of getting out of this awkward situation but, at the same time, he's really curious about this relationship that Gee never mentioned before.

“So, how long you've been together?” Frank asks out of nowhere.

Mikey raises an eyebrow, “Living together?” He rephrases the question. “About to two years”.

'Two years?' Frank repeats in his head. So Gee had been with Mikey the whole time while Frank, the pathetic idiot, was deluding himself and falling in love with her.

“So, why did you stop calling her,” Mikey says, apparently following the pattern of random questions that Frank just set.

The shorter man gapes and thinks about it for a second. “Calling her?”

“Yeah, you know, for the cuddling sessions”.

“You know about that?” Frank asks, he doesn't feel comfortable with the thought of people knowing that he has to pay for cuddles.

“I know that that's how you two met,” Mikey explains.

“Yeah, well..." Frank sighs,  "I didn't think that it was appropriate anymore”.

Mikey stares at Frank for a moment with an unreadable expression, then he furrows his brow. Frank can see a hint of suspicion in his gaze.

“Well, I don't know why you stopped calling her, but she was really bumped out because of that,” Mikey says.

“Really?” Frank's eyes widen with surprise.

“Yeah, she really likes you, you know?”

Frank's mouth forms a perfect O and he gets an unsettling feeling in his stomach as he hears that. So, he was right, Gee likes him back! He can't help but to smile at the thought of that, but then he remembers who he is talking to. His grin disappears in an instant and he frowns deeply.

“And you don't care about that?!” he says, bemused, thinking that maybe the polyamory thing that Ray mentioned earlier is actually happening.

“Well, listening at her pining over some guy is annoying, but she usually whines a lot, so...” Mikey shrugs.

“But...” Frank shakes his head, as if that could help him to clarify this. “You really don't care that your girlfriend likes somebody else?!” Frank is not the jealous type, but he doesn't go finding new boyfriends for his girlfriends either.

“My what?!” Mikey says in the same outraged tone that Frank just used. “My girlfriend?! Dude, she's my sister!”

Frank blinks. “Your sister?”

“Yeah, look”. Mikey takes his wallet out of his back pocket and shows Frank his driver's license. “I am Michael James Way, son of Don and Donna Way. Gee, Geraldine Way,” he specifies, waving the little piece of plastic that he's holding in his hand, “Is my sister. You thought that we were a couple?” Mikey scrounges up his nose. “Dude, ew, seriously!”

“But...” Frank swallows and runs his fingers through his hair; he's feeling utterly confused right now. “But you two live together and she said that she loves you and... And you don't even look alike,” Frank waves a hand frantically, pointing at Mikey's general physique, “What the fuck was I suppose to think?!”

“Well,” Mikey starts explaining, “First of all, we live together due to our current financial situation; we're pretty much broke, you know? Gee just found another job, so I'm hoping that that will change soon”.

'Gee has another job?' Frank doesn't have much time to think about the implications of that particular piece of information because Mikey continues talking almost immediately.

“Second, when she says that she loves me, she usually completes the sentence with a threat like: _Mikeyway, I love you, but if you touch my flat iron again, I will fucking strangle you with its cord_ ”. Frank nods because that's pretty much the way that Gee phrased it that time.

“She got that from my mom,” Mikey shrugs before continuing. “And third, if we don't look alike is because of some genetic variation, which played in my favor, of course; everybody knows that I'm the hot sibling while Gee is the multi-talented one”.

Frank nods after a moment because Mikey's explanations sound pretty reasonable, except for the _hot sibling_ part... Okay, Mikey is kinda hot, but...

“So, are you going to talk to her or what?”

“Talk to her?” Frank says, bemused.

“Jesus! You're just as slow as she is”.

Frank frowns because he did not appreciate that comment.

Mikey sneakers, “I just told you that she really likes you and that she's been pining over you basically since she met you”.

“Since we met,” Frank eyes widen again.

“Yeah” Mikey nods, “And you like her too, right? Don't tell me that you don't because I saw the way that you looked at her the other day and I just caught you staring at her paintings with those same big, dreamy eyes of yours”.

“Well, I...” Frank falters, “I really like her,” he admits after a moment.

“Okay then,” Mikey grabs him by the wrist and takes him to the back door of the room. Frank follows him rather reluctantly.

“She's over there,” Mikey says, “Go talk to her”.

When Frank turns around, he realizes that there's a third room in the gallery. It is slightly bigger than the second one, the lights are dimmed and instead of paintings, this one is full with sculptures. As he walks in he can see a small group of people gathered by one of the corners. Gee is there, talking to Krista and some other people that Frank doesn't know.

A smile tugs at Frank's lips when he sees her. She's standing there, in the middle of the group making vehement hand gestures as she speaks, the same way that she always does when she is trying to convince you of something that she considers very important, like not conforming to traditional gender roles and changing the world through art, and she looks gorgeous. She's wearing black leggings, a top with golden sequins on the front and a red blazer. Her hair is tied in a messy bun on one side of her head and she's wearing a shade of crimson on her lips that's the perfect contrast to her pale skin.

Frank takes a couple of steps in that direction, but then he realizes that Gee is busy right now. She's probably trying to make a sale or something, and Frank can't just barge in, so he waits for a moment next to a big plant with long pointy leaves that creep him out a little. In the mean time, he sips the remains of his long forgotten wine as he thinks about how stupid he had been when he jumped into the conclusion that Mikey and Gee were lovers without asking her first. 'They are brother and sister...' Frank snorts, thinking how outrageous that would be. 'It would be like... Incest, right? No, wait...'

“Waycest!” Frank didn't mean to say that word aloud, but for some reason he totally does and that catches Gee's attention.

“Frank?” Gee, is looking at him from the other side of the room with big startled eyes and her lips slightly parted.

“Gee, um... Hi!” Frank waves a hand a little awkwardly.

A big smile crosses Gee's face at the sight of that. She excuses herself and walks towards Frank quickly. Her heels click on the tiled floor with every step that she takes.

“Hey, you're here,” she says once that she's standing right in front of him, then leans in and hugs him. Their bodies touch for the briefest moment, but it is enough to make Frank realize how bad he missed her and how good it feels to be with her again.

“Yeah,” Frank breathes out when she pulls back; all thoughts and the rest of the English vocabulary momentarily forgotten.

“How did you find out about the show,” Gee asks him, curiosity reflecting in her eyes.

“My friend Ray...” Frank replies.

“Krista's boyfriend?”

“Yeah,” he nods, “He told me about the show and when I saw your name on the flyer I...” he huffs, “I had to come and see your work”.

“Well, I'm glad that you did,” Gee bites her lip and stares at Frank for a moment, “So, what do you think?”

“About your paintings?”

Gee nods.

“They're great”.

Gee ducks her head as a little shy grin appears on her face.

“I mean it,” Frank assures her. “Seriously, they are...” He turns around and puts his hand on the small of Gee's back, then he leads her to the other room, the one where all her paintings are and points at one that is hanging right on the opposite wall. “I especially like that one”.

“The sunrise,” Gee says, nodding. The painting shows what Frank interprets as the sun rising the day after the apocalypse, it's dark but somehow hopeful. “I can't give you like a real critique because I know shit about art, but I really like it,” he tells her, honestly.

Gee grins. “That's my favorite too,” she says.

“Really?”

“Yeah”. They stay there in silence for a minute or two contemplating the painting.

“Why did you stop calling me?” Gee asks all of the sudden and Frank feels his heart starting to race.

“I...”

“Gee!” Krista is calling her. She's standing by the door with a man an a woman that Frank doesn't know them, but judging by the suit the guy is wearing and the jewelry that is decorating the woman's upper body, he can tell that they are a wealthy couple. 'Maybe they want to buy something,' he thinks.

“I need to go,” Gee says, apologetically, “But, I'll be here in a minute”.

“Take your time," Frank lifts his empty glass and shakes it so Gee can see that he needs to refill "I'll go get another drink,” he says.

“Okay,” Gee grins, “I'll be right back”.

After watching Gee walking away, Frank goes for another glass of wine and then he roams in the main room, watching the pieces of the other artists. They are pretty good, but Frank thinks that Gee's are the best, although, his judgement might be slightly biased.

About fifteen minutes later, Gee finds him by what Frank thinks is the weirdest, no, the most abstract piece in the room. He's been there for a while trying to figure out if the shadow at the center of the canvas is either a woman or a bird and he's come to the conclusion that maybe is both.

“So...” Gee chimes in, startling Frank. He turns around and they grin at each other a little sheepishly.

“Gee!” Somebody calls her from the other side of the room.

“Gee,” Frank frowns, “You're busy, I should have known, I...”

“No,” Gee says firmly and grabs his wrist. “Krista can take care of that; let's go outside,” she beckons. They walk out through the service door and into an ally.

“Are you telling me now why you stopped calling me?” Gee asks with a serious tone once that they are standing a few yards away from the door.

“Gee I...” Frank sighs.

“I really wanted you to call me, you know?” Gee says, looking at Frank with big, sad eyes and she sounds hurt. Frank hates that, he hates thinking that he might have done something that hurt Gee.

“I wanted to call you,” he says, desperately, “I was about to do it so many times, but not for a cuddling session, but to tell you that I like you, that I want to be with you for real, outside the contract and all that shit”.

“So, why you didn't?” Gee asks, quietly this time, but sounding equally frustrated.

“Because...” Frank huffs, “Because I thought that you and Mikey were together”.

“Together?” Gee raises her brow, “You mean like a couple?”

Frank nods.

“But Frank...”

“Well,” Frank stars explaining, “You two live together and you said that you loved him, you know, that one time in the Home Depot, and you guys don't even look alike, how was I supposed to know?”

“Oh,” Gee breathes out and frowns, looking conflicted.

“But Mikey just explained me everything so...”

“So,” Gee tilts her head again, hope lighting up her face. “Are you gonna kiss me now?” she says with the same cute, lopsided smile that caught Frank's eyes that first time that he saw her in that profile photo.

“Yeah,” he nods.

Frank steps closer, but before leaning in, they stare at each other for a moment. Frank looks down when he feels Gee hooking her finger to one of his hands. The way they are touching right now is really nothing compared to the cuddling and snuggling that they used to do during the sessions, yet still, this feels so much more intimate because now they both know what this light touch really means.

Frank grins at the thought of that, but his smile rapidly vanishes, because he is finally leaning in closer and pressing his lips to Gee's. They kiss slowly for a long while, with their mouths barely parted, Frank's nipping lightly at Gee's bottom lip, and then caressing it with the tip of his tongue. Gee moans in his mouth once that he gets all the way in, moving his tongue carefully. She breaks the kiss a little after that and Frank is breathless, staring at her swollen lips in the dimness of the alley, so her next move totally takes him aback.

She grabs him by the hip and presses his body against the side wall of the gallery. Their lips lock again, but there's nothing gentle about this kiss, because this time Gee kisses him hungrily, pressing a thigh between his legs, sliding one hand around his ass, and running the fingers of her other hand through his hair, tugging it lightly and this is...

“Fuck,” Frank manages to say between kisses. This is Gee taking charge of the situation and it is really fucking hot.

“You have no idea, Frank,” she whispers next to his ear after they had to make a brief pause to breathe. “You have no idea how hard it was for me sometimes having you there, next to me, and not being able to kiss you like this”.

“Ahn,” Frank moans deep and throaty and that's all he can say right now, because even when Gee stopped kissing him, she hasn't stopped rolling her hips and he is so hard right now that...

“Gee!” Mikey calls her from the doorway, he is facing the other way and is covering his eyes with one hand. “They need you inside!” He says, loudly.

Gee huffs, “I'm coming,” she yells in the general direction of the door, then she turns to face Frank again. “I don't wanna go,” she whines into the crook of Frank's neck.

“Hey, this is your first show and you are really busy, I guess that it means that you're already a celebrity,” Frank says trying to cheer her up.

“I'd rather not to if it is going to be this annoying,” she pouts.

“Gee!” Somebody yells again, not Mikey this time, but Krista and Ray that are now standing on the doorsteps.

Gee throws her head back and rolls her eyes at the same time. “I said that I'm coming,” she says between gritted teeth, finally pulling back, “Just gimme a minute!”.

“One minute,” Krista tells her severely, pointing at her with one finger. Ray gives Frank thumbs up and an enthusiastic grin over Krista's head before taking her hand and walking into the gallery again. Frank giggles at that.

Meanwhile, Gee is rearranging her rumpled clothes. Frank holds a hand full of bobby pins for her as she tugs some loose strands of hair back into a bun.

“How do I look?” She asks once she's done. Frank reaches out to carefully wipe off the lipstick smeared on the sides of her mouth.

“Incredibly hot,” he says, sincerily.

Gee grins. She steps closer and leans down to whisper in his ear. “Don't you go away, okay? Because after this, I want to you to take me to your apartment; I don't want to miss the opportunity to finally be naked in your bed”.

Frank hisses in a breath.

A few minutes later, he's taking a cigarette out of his pocket, biting at his lip and smiling at himself as he remembers what Gee just said. He smokes it slowly, taking long drags; his back is still pressed against the wall. He doesn't move an inch from the spot where Gee left him because, no, he doesn't want to miss that opportunity either.


	8. Who knew

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Final chapter.  
> Thanks you for following this story :D

Frank has very recently discovered that he loves going down on Gee. He has only done it twice since they started dating but it is so fucking hot that it quickly became one of his favorite activities. Judging by the way that Gee is looking at him right now while she's sprawled on the couch with her dress pulled up to her waist, her hair all disheveled and her lips swollen from the the kissing they have been doing, Frank can tell that she is pretty into it too.

Even when Frank is eager to go straight to the point, so to speak, he knows that it is better if he takes his time and teases her a little before going all the way down, so he undoes the last button of his shirt and throws it away with one careless movement.

He considers taking his pants off as well, but he thinks that being naked at this point would be unfair given that Gee is still completely dressed except for her long, bare legs, which, by the way, Frank wants to have wrapped around his body immediately. The thought of that makes him take a step closer and kneels down in front of her.

Frank's fingertips brush very lightly the sensitive skin of her thighs as he slides his hands up to her hips. He leans forward to press a kiss on the side of her right knee, on the spot where he decided to start this time. Frank smiles satisfied with himself when he feels Gee's body trembling a little at the contact of his lips with her skin, but the smile fades quickly as he begins trailing a path of kisses and soft, barely stinging bites along the length of her pale thighs.

Gee's legs open up readily as Frank nips, sucks and licks. He can't see her face right now, but the little breathy noises that she's making above him tell Frank all he needs to know right now and also they serve as a powerful incentive for him to keep going even more enthusiastically than before.

Once that he reaches her crotch, he stops working with his mouth and takes a minute to breathe in her scent. The tip of his nose brushes lightly against the piece of silky fabric that is still covering her pussy and when he pushes in a little, Gee clenches the hand that she had resting on his hair and lets out a soft moan.

Frank tilts his face up at the sound of that and he catches Gee watching him with half lidded eyes; expectation and lust darkening her gaze. Frank loves seeing her like this, completely into it, so he bites back a delighted grin and surges up to press his lips to hers. Gee kisses him hot and insistent and Frank takes the hint immediately; it's time for him to go straight to the point.

He nips at her lower lip one last time before pulling back and taking his hands from the backrest of the couch, where they were settled, to place them on both sides of Gee's waist. He hooks his fingers in the elastic of her panties and starts tugging them down slowly but firmly.

"Up," he whispers after a moment. Gee presses her palms against the seat and lifts her pelvis up a little. The gap that forms between her body and the couch allows Frank to pull the panties down the curve of her ass and then all the way down to her feet.

Once that he's thrown the tiny piece of clothing to the floor, he gets down on his knees again, but this time he doesn't delays this any longer. He spreads Gee's legs further very gently and finally leans in. The sound that Gee makes when Frank first slides the tip of his tongue, wet and hot, between the lips of her cunt is loud and throaty and it goes directly to his dick.

He is rock hard in his pants right now, but he doesn't want to stop this to get rid of his remaining clothes, so he just takes one of the hands that he currently has on the side of Gee's hips and squeezes himself a couple of times, applying just enough pressure for him to feel it beneath the fabric of his pants. Meanwhile, Gee is threading her fingers through Frank's hair and letting out a series of little breathy moans.

Frank's jaw is feeling slightly tired already, but he ignores that in favor of making little circles around her entrance with his tongue. He sticks the tip inside a couple of times before moving up and sucking lightly on her clit, which makes Gee buckle and pant desperately.

"Frank, I..." she gasps, but Frank is a little too caught up in what he's doing to pay attention to what she's trying to say. He keeps on sucking her clit some more because he simply loves doing that. He loves the way that the little hard nob feels between his lips and the way that Gee writhes with pleasure every time that he lets it go with one wet noise just to take it into his mouth again.

"Ahn!" she moans loudly and the muscles of her thighs get tense beneath Frank's hands. "Frank..." she stops to bite her bottom lip hard enough to leave red indentation marks under. "If you keep doing that I'm gonna..." And yes, this is what Frank was waiting for, he wants Gee to cum, he wants to make her cum and...

" Stop," she says suddenly and pushes Frank's head back using both hands. Frank looks up at her disconcerted; his face feels flushed and sticky and he doesn't know what he did wrong.

Gee sits up and reaches out to caress the side of Frank's cheek. "You're awesome at this," she tells him with a soft, gentle tone and she's smiling at him, which only makes Frank feel even more confused.

"Then why you made me stop?" He asks.

"Because if you keep doing that," Gee looks down and bites the side of her lip, "I'm going to cum really, really fast," she explains. Frank can see her chest heaving; is pretty obvious that her breathing is still very agitated so he believes her.

"How fast?" he teases; one eyebrow raised suggestively and a mischievous grin on his face. "Like..." Gee bites at her lip in a pensive way and adds "In seventeen seconds?". The sound of their giggles resonates in the room for a moment, after which, Gee starts speaking again, earnestly this time.

"Look, I was really enjoying what you were doing before, but I want to try something different tonight".

Frank nods, he doesn't know what Gee is planning to do, but if it involves having her half naked on his couch, he's totally on board with that.

"Let's go to your room," she whispers next to his ear and stands up from the couch. Gravity makes the skirt of her dress fall down her legs as she walks across the living, but the frail piece of clothing doesn't linger on her body for much longer, because as soon as she saunters into Frank's bedroom, she unzips it and tugs the straps down her shoulders, leaving her chest exposed.

Frank takes a step closer to help her getting undressed, but mostly to take the opportunity to cup one of her little, round breasts in his hand and gently kiss the other one before sucking the nipple into his mouth. Gee starts panting again.

"Take off your pants," she says breathlessly. She already started trying to unbuckle Frank's belt so he replaces Gee's hands with his own and quickly gets rid of his pants and boxer briefs. Meanwhile, Gee goes to the bed and starts piling up some pillows and cushions against the headboard.

Then she turns around and says, "Get on the bed". Frank, pliant as he is whenever they get to be like this, does as he is told and looks at Gee expectant. He's sitting on the bed, his back leaning against the pile of pillows and his erection resting on the space beneath his navel, watching Gee finally taking her dress off. She undoes the final part of the zipper, the one that goes down her lower back and with one movement of her hips, she lets the dress fall down to the floor. Frank's cock twitches at the sight of her naked figure gleaming in the dimness of the room.

"You need a condom for this," she says and the quiet sound of her voice takes Frank out of his temporary stupor. 

"Right," he blinks and immediately reaches for the bedside table drawer. His hands tremble a little as he opens the little plastic envelope. 'So, we are fucking,' he says to himself. They haven't done this before, not that they didn't want to, it's just that they hadn't had the chance to get to it, really.

The night they got together after the art show, it all had been a little too fast and sloppy. Once they got in the bed, they barely had time to pull their pants and underwear down just enough for Frank to slide one hand between Gee's thighs and finger her while enthusiastically humping her leg, before they both were cumming with equally loud groans of pleasure, just a few seconds apart from each other. After that, they took the rest of their clothes off, pull the covers up and snuggled until they both fell asleep.

The first time they went on a real date, they experienced the delights of oral sex in Frank's couch. On their second date, it had been a pretty creative foot job in the bathtub after Frank went down on her for the second time that week. He didn't even know that he had a thing for feet, not until that particular night at least, but he's already added it to his ever growing list of kinks.

They didn't have sex on their third date and it had been pretty much Frank's fault because they were in Gee's neighborhood and he wanted to see her apartment, it was just five blocks away from the pizzeria where they had dinner and he didn't even consider the possibility that Mikey would be there, hanging out with some guy named Pete.

They had a beer and then sat down in the living room with a bowl full with popcorn to watch some movie with the guys. It was one of Argento's movies, part of Gee's horror collection, but Frank didn't pay much attention to it, since he had been pretty busy, constantly looking at her out of the corner of his eye, pressing little kisses to her neck and her cheek and stroking his fingertips gently along the delicate surface of her forearm.

Judging by the sneaky glances and the little knowing smiles that Pete and Mikey were trading on the other couch, it was pretty obvious that not only Frank's plans of getting laid in the reduced space of that apartment had been frustated that night. Even though, it was a fun night.

Now this was their fourth date and it had been a little more formal than the previous ones due to the fact that they were celebrating that Gee was starting in her new job. It turns out that she got a gig as one of the organizers of a project created to promote art education in the areas with the highest crime rates in the state of Jersey.

Gee is really excited about it because she feels that this is her opportunity to make a difference through art, but at the same time the job is really demanding and she has to come up with new, creative ways to engage kids in art related activities and then figure out how to implement her ideas in a sometimes hostile environment.

Because of that, she had been very stressed this past week, so Frank considered doing something to help her out with that. He planned to take her to a nice restaurant and then going to this cafe where they have an open mic on Friday nights. Ray, James and some other guys that Frank knows play there sometimes, so after dinner they got in a cab and headed to the cafe, but they never got there because they started making out as soon as the car started moving.

It was just that Gee was looking so stunning that night in that little blue dress and... The thing with dresses and skirts is that they allow immediate access to the soft skin of her legs and Frank cannot control himself and resist touching them, not when Gee was kissing and biting that spot between his jaw and his neck, and sliding her hands beneath his shirt and whispering unexpectedly, dirty things in his ear, so before something embarrassing and/or indecent might happen in the back seat of that taxi, Frank announced a change of plans and gave the driver his address.

And that's how they got here.

Frank's barely finished putting on the condom when Gee is already climbing on top of him. She straddles him, one of her hands travel around his neck and the other one rest on the side of his stomach. Frank grabs her by the waist and stares at her big, hazel eyes for a moment. It always amazes him how they seem to scintillate even when there are no brights in the room.

"Ready?" she whispers; the intonation of the question is almost imperceptible.

"Yeah," Frank breathes out hoarsely. After that, he sees Gee's hips going further down and his chest heaves when he feels her hand grabbing his cock and guiding it inside her. "Oh god!" Frank pants when she's all the way down. His mouth goes slack and his neck arches to the point where he can almost see the edge of the headboard behind him.

Going down on her is great, there's no doubt about it, but being inside her like this; feeling her warm and tight around him; having her on top of him while she is practically riding him, it is really fucking amazing.

"Ahn!" Gee moans loudly next to his ear as she moves her hips up and down rhythmically. Frank buries his fingertips deep in the hollows of her lower back and pulls her body closer.

He can feel her hard nipples brushing against his flat chest. He wants to cup her breasts and maybe mouth at them, but he can't, all he can do right now is moan and gasp for air, buckle his hips with every other thrust and let himself sink in this bundle of ecstatic sensations.

"You feel so good, Gee," he manages to say between thrusts, "So fucking good".

"Ummh," Gee moans in agreement.

After keeping a steady rhythm for a couple of minutes, she speeds up the pace and Frank suddenly feels dangerously close to the edge. He grits his teeth as he bites the skin on the Gee's shoulder and tries to keep his hips from moving.

He wants this to last, he wants it to last at least a little longer, but now Gee is tipping her head back, all her muscles are tensing up under his touch and she's letting out a string of moans and words that barely count as words, not only because they're not intended to communicate anything but the intense pleasure that she's feeling right now, but also because they are breathy, soft and intangible like gasps.

She slides home one last time and then she's cumming with a high pitched whimper that sounds loud in the otherwise quiet room.

Frank feels her quivering and clenching around him and that's all he can take. He tightens his grip around Gee's waist, taking his hands further to the arch of her back to where little drops of sweat are pooling, then he bucks up and starts thrusting as fast and deep as Gee had been doing it before. It isn't long before he's is groaning and whimpering and cumming hard inside her.

*****

The faint rustling of sheets moving on the other side of the bed makes Frank wake up. He doesn't know what time is it, he doesn't even remember falling asleep, all he remembers is feeling extremely relaxed and happy after an amazing session of sex, so it must have happened right after Gee rearranged the pillows on the bed and they both slid under the covers.

He is pretty drowsy right now and he could easily go back to sleep in a couple of minutes if he lets his eyes close again, but he resists the impulse in favor of watching Gee sleeping serenely next to him.

He stares at his face, at her long, curly eyelashes obscuring her eyes and at the way that her lips part slightly as she breathes out. Frank slides one hand around her waist, twines their feet together and shifts his body closer.

They never snuggled like this during their sessions when Gee still worked for mycuddlebuddy.com and that's exactly the reason why this is, by far, his favorite position.

Snuggling with her like this, face to face, naked and in the middle of the night, means that this is real. Frank still sometimes finds it a little hard to believe because, who would have known that hiring the most bizarre service in the internet would lead him to find someone like her?

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading :D  
> Don't forget to comment.


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